New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a meeting on Wednesday to consider uniform legal entitlement of subsidised foodgrains to 67 per cent of the country's population under the National Food Security Bill.
The meeting will discuss whether to accept the alternative plan, suggested by over 30 leading experts and economists, for easy and early implementation of the Food Bill, a pet project of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, sources said.
Terming the government's Food Bill in the current form as 'confusing, impractical and divisive', the experts have suggested treating 67 per cent of the country's population as 'aam log', who should be covered under the Act. They have recommended providing at least 25 kg of foodgrains at an uniform rate of Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 per kg for wheat and Re one per kg for millet and asked the government to do away with dividing beneficiaries into 'general' and 'priority' groups.
The Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2011, is currently being vetted by the Parliamentary Standing Committee.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Food Minister KV Thomas, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and PMEAC Chairman C Rangaran would be present in the meeting, sources said. The meeting has been called in the backdrop of delay in in Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) on the basis of which the government has plans to identify beneficiary (general and priority households) for welfare programmes.
The meeting will discuss whether to accept the alternative plan, suggested by over 30 leading experts and economists, for easy and early implementation of the Food Bill, a pet project of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, sources said.
Terming the government's Food Bill in the current form as 'confusing, impractical and divisive', the experts have suggested treating 67 per cent of the country's population as 'aam log', who should be covered under the Act. They have recommended providing at least 25 kg of foodgrains at an uniform rate of Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 per kg for wheat and Re one per kg for millet and asked the government to do away with dividing beneficiaries into 'general' and 'priority' groups.
The Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2011, is currently being vetted by the Parliamentary Standing Committee.
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Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Food Minister KV Thomas, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and PMEAC Chairman C Rangaran would be present in the meeting, sources said. The meeting has been called in the backdrop of delay in in Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) on the basis of which the government has plans to identify beneficiary (general and priority households) for welfare programmes.
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