Patna, Nov. 22: The state government has urged the Centre to bear the full cost of setting up logistics required for meeting norms of the proposed National Food Security Bill.
The state government has made its stand clear in its reply to a letter from the Centre that sought the former’s opinion on the draft bill. The bill is likely to be tabled in the winter session of Parliament.
“We stand for ensuring food security for one and all but there are several issues on which we have strong reservations. Prominent among them is the cost component that the state government would have to bear because we do not have enough resources to meet such a huge cost,” deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi told journalists on the sidelines of the weekly janata darbar today.
Elaborating the point, Modi said setting up a computerised public delivery system, bearing the cost of transporting foodgrain from godowns to public distribution shops, constructing sufficient number of godowns for storing the foodgrain, deputing dedicated district grievance redressal offices and state food security commission, setting up community kitchens and paying food security allowance would put a huge burden on the state exchequer which does not have the resources to meet such burden.
Another major point on which Bihar has expressed concern pertains to the categorisation of people in about a dozen categories.
The draft bill says that unlike the present practice of dividing people into below poverty line (BPL) and above poverty line (APL), there would be categories like priority households, general households, homeless, destitute, those facing starvation or akin to starvation, pregnant women, lactating mothers, malnourished children in the age group of six months to six years among others.
“We receive so many complaints when people have to be divided into two categories (BPL and APL), now it can be anybody’s guess the problems the state would face in categorising people in so many categories,” Modi said, before reiterating the state government’s demand for setting up an independent commission for carrying out such work.
The draft bill says that in case of people belonging to priority household category, 7kg foodgrain would be given every month for such individuals, whereas in case of general households, 5kg foodgrain would be provided to individuals every month. Modi also expressed dissatisfaction with the clause in the draft bill, which puts a cap on the number of people to be covered under it.
