NEW DELHI: The states would not be able to provide subsidized food to anyone that the Centre rules out of its beneficiaries' list under the proposed National Food Security Bill, 2011.
The Bill, tabled in a hurry ahead of the UP polls and facing criticism from non-UPA-ruled state governments like Bihar and Tamil Nadu, is bound to face stiff opposition to this proposal, which prevents states from enlarging its ambit to benefit poor that the Centre does not identify.
No household falling under the exclusion criteria, to be prescribed by the Central government, shall be included in the priority households or general households," the bill says.
The Centre intends to use the BPL Census to identify the NFSA beneficiaries. The Census lists categories that are automatically included and excluded as beneficiaries for government programmes. It also lays down parameters to classify the rest in or out of the beneficiaries list. But the UPA-II is yet to decide how to use these parameters. Depending upon the methodology, the total number of beneficiaries could vary by as much as 20% of the population.
Yet the bill has been tabled in Parliament while the Census has got delayed and remains open-ended in its results. Some states like Tamil Nadu have opposed the bill since AIADMK-led government is extending a similar scheme to a larger population at a cheaper rate.
Now, the Centre applies artificial caps on its subsidy based on the Planning Commission estimates while providing foodgrains. But the states circumvent this by picking up costlier APL quota grains while giving an additional subsidy at their end. This way, states give foodgrains to a larger section than the Centre permits.
The states' options are likely to get curtailed, thanks to the new bill. It would be worse for southern states like Tamil Nadu that run more expansive food security schemes of their own. They would find themselves either bearing the entire burden of subsidy for additional beneficiaries or taking a politically deleterious step of excluding people from the programme.
No comments:
Post a Comment