CB BureauFood Security Bill, it seems, will see some very positive amendments
as the National Advisory Council (NAC) thoroughly discussed the draft bill
prepared by the government and made reasonable recommendations.
NAC is of the view that the Centre should move beyond the
traditional APL-BPL faultline and aim for an inclusive Bill. ??Universalization sits
well with the spirit of the bill,’ said NAC member AK Shivakumar.
The members also agreed the bill had to go beyond
offering subsidized grains and offer nutritional security. It is expected that
on offer will be varieties like jowar, bajra, ragi, etc., which would make the
bill more nutritionally advantageous while also making it self-selecting, as the
affluent Indian stopped eating coarse cereals a while ago. Further, more
affluent parts of the society, like government employees and others, could be
excluded from the purview of the bill.
An approach pegged around self-selection and exclusionary criteria might also
help the country generate more empirical estimates about the incidence of poverty
– on annual and seasonal bases.
CB bureau
New Delhi