Draft food bill near completion,to cover 70% population:Thomas

New Delhi, Feb 19 (PTI) Indian government on Saturday
said the draft Food Security Bill, which entitles nearly
two-thirds of the population to subsidised foodgrains, was
almost ready.
The Bill will legally entitle up to 70 per cent of
population to subsidised foodgrains as against the National
Advisory Council's proposal to cover 75 per cent.
"We are going to introduce the Food Security Bill, almost
65-70 per cent of the population are going to get the
benefit," India's Food Minister K V Thomas said at the
National Conference on "Policy for foodgrains storage,
handling and transportation".
A draft bill is "almost at a final conclusive stage", he
told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.
The National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by Sonia
Gandhi, had recommended to the government to grant legal
entitlement of subsidised foodgrains to 75 per cent of
population covering both "priority" and "general" households.
But the Rangarajan Committee, set up to review the NAC
recommendations, had raised concerns over foodgrain
availability and suggested that it would be "feasible" to
cover the "priority" households, and foodgrains could be given
to "general" category based on the availability.
On difference of view expressed by the two prominent
bodies on covering the number of beneficiaries under the law,
Thomas said there was not much difference between the
proposals suggested by the NAC and the Rangarajan Committee,
except for above poverty line (APL) families.
"..the issue of APL will be addressed. We will come to
some kind of conclusion on this," he said, adding that the
matter will be discussed again with the Rangarajan Committee.
At present, the government provides 35 kg of food grains
to 6.52 crore families below poverty line (BPL) through ration
shops. Wheat is provided at Rs 4.15 per kg and rice at Rs 5.65
per kg.
Pointing out the urgency of strengthening storage
capacity in the wake of higher requirement of foodgrains under
the proposed food bill, the minister said "We need to improve
our storage infrastructure through involvement of private
sector."
As a result, the Food Ministry has proposed the Finance
Ministry to consider providing fiscal and tax incentives and
other facilities in the forthcoming budget to boost private
investment in developing warehouse infrastructure, he added.
Implementing NAC's proposal would required 60 million
tonnes of foodgrains.
At present, the government has foodgrains storage
capacity of 50 million tonnes. Extra space to store about 15
million tonnes will be added in next 3-4 years.