Cabinet to take up food bill
December 18th, 2011 - 8:05 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, Dec 18 (IANS) The union cabinet will Sunday evening take up the contentious National Food Security Bill that seeks to provide rice at Rs.3, wheat at Rs.2 and coarse grains at Re.1 per kg to over half of India’s 1.2 billion population.
The bill seeks to cover 75 percent of the rural population and 50 percent of urban households and proposes the right of every individual to 7 kg of foodgrain.
But the cabinet is unlikely to take up the Lokpal bill, which is still being fine tuned, government sources said.
The cabinet Dec 13 had deferred a decision on the food bill as the government thought it proper to bring the allies on board.
Sources said Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has expressed concern that the food subsidy, currently at Rs.63,000 crore ($12 billion), may go up to Rs.1.2 lakh crore ($23 billion) to implement the right to food law.
The food bill is the pet project of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council and was part of the Congress manifesto for the 2009 general elections.
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