New Delhi:
President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent on Friday to the government's food welfare programme which is intended to serve as a mega vote-getter in the national elections, due by May.
The scheme that provides subsidised food to nearly 800 million or 67 per cent of the population is now law, but it must be cleared within six weeks of Parliament's next session.
The populist programme, championed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, will cost 1.25 lakh crores per year. The cabinet used an executive order to clear the scheme to bypass a debate in Parliament.
"Up to 75 per cent of the rural population and up to 50 per cent of the urban population will have uniform entitlement of five kilos per month at highly subsidised prices," a government statement said.
The bill had been expected to be cleared by Parliament in February, but it was never introduced due to opposition protests.
The BJP and others have attacked the government for ramming the measure through by decree, saying there has not been enough discussion of its effect on prices and on farmers who must produce more food.
Critics of the food programme also say that India can ill-afford such a costly subsidy at a time of slowing economic growth and when credit ratings agencies are eyeing the country's large deficit.
Indians categorised as below the poverty line can already receive subsidised kerosene, cooking gas, fertilisers or wheat through what is the world's biggest public distribution system.
But the welfare programmes are notoriously inefficient and riddled with corruption.