Food activists have rejected the National Food Security Bill 2013 which was passed by the Cabinet recently, and will now be placed in Parliament in the ongoing Budget session.

Over 500 activists, who have been sitting on dharna at Jantar Mantar here since Monday, said the Bill’s framework was flawed and it had no clear time frame. The activists, under the aegis of the Right to Food Campaign, had also said they would urge political parties to oppose the Bill in its present form.

The Bill entitles 67 per cent of the population to get subsidised foodgrain under the public distribution service (PDS). “The monthly provisioning for only 5 kg of cereal per person not only makes a mockery of the intent of the Bill, but also goes against the Supreme Court order that entitles every poor household to 35 kg of foodgrain a month,” said the Right to Food Campaign (RFC), which had sough at least 7 kg per household, especially at a time when Government granaries were overflowing.

At a press conference here on Wednesday, the activists also flayed the absence of entitlements to pulses and oil in the PDS, and added that this showed that the Bill failed to ensure good nutrition to the country’s poor.

The Bill’s language, saying that different dates may be appointed for different States and different provisions for the implementation of the Act, clearly shows that there is no time frame for full implementation or objective criteria for phased implementation, RFC said in a statement.

Pointing out a “basic flaw” in the Bill’s framework, it said there was a complete absence of guarantees for farmers’ livelihoods, increasing production, guaranteeing minimum support price along with decentralised procurement and decentralised storage.

>aditi.n@thehindu.co.in

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