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NAC rubbishes Rangarajan report, pins hope on new minister on food security Bill
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Tuesday, 15 February, 2011, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, New Delhi
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The Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council (NAC) has pinned its hopes on the new food minister, K V Thomas, to use its version of the food security Bill past Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Last month, the committee headed by Prime Minister’s economic adviser C Rangarajan had rejected the NAC’s proposal for near-universalisation of the public distribution system, citing current production and procurement distortions as reasons.
The NAC’s grouse was that Thomas’s predecessor, Sharad Pawar, was not only indifferent but also opposed the idea of social inclusion in the food sector, and managed to convince the Prime Minister and Ahluwalia.
Harsh Mander, the convener of NAC, and N C Saxena, member of the NAC’s sub-group on food security, had their first meeting with Thomas last week. They presented a point-by-point critique of the Rangarajan committee’s recommendations that were largely at variance with NAC’s version of the proposed law. It is understood Thomas was told the NAC was unwilling to take the Rangarajan committee’s concerns on board.
Thomas, it seems, heard the NAC’s arguments patiently, agreed “in principle” with what the members said but stressed there were practical issues that also merited the government’s consideration. The minister did not spell out the issues, but promised to get back to Mander and Saxena ahead of the NAC’s next meeting on February 26.
The NAC believed Thomas was different from Pawar for two reasons — being a Congress loyalist he would try and accommodate Sonia’s wishes to the best of his ability. Second, Thomas belongs to Kerala, a state with near-universal PDS coverage and was, therefore, expected to be more amenable to the council’s recommendations.
Meanwhile, Thomas said in an interview to a newspaper that the Food Security Bill was unlikely to be tabled in parliament during the Budget session. “I don’t think it will be tabled in the Budget session, and my priority frankly is that whenever the cabinet passes the Bill, my implementation machinery should be in place.”
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