Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) approved the draft National Food Security Bill , 2011 which aims to make provision of food support to people facing hunger a duty of the state.
The historic Food Security Bill entitles 75% of India's population to highly-subsidized foodgrains.
- The Bill says two types of households are eligible for discounted grain - "priority households" which are below the poverty line (BPL); and "general households" which consist of Lower Middle Class families.
- The bill guarantees subsidised foodgrains to at least 90 per cent of rural households, and 50 percent of urban households.
- According to the bill, 46 per cent of the rural and 28 per cent of urban households categorised as 'priority group' are entitled to receive foodgrains at 7 kg per head per month at Rs three, two and one for wheat or rice or millets respectively
- 49 per cent of the rural and 22 per cent of urban households categorised as 'general group' are entitled to receive foodgrains at 4 kg per head per month at not more than 50 per cent of the MSP of the respective foodgrain.
The draft bill follows a life cycle approach and introduces a number of other universal guarantees, including nutrition support and maternity entitlements for pregnant women, nutrition support to children both in pre-school centres and in school, but also to all out of school children; destitute feeding and affordable meals for homeless and other needy urban populations; and special guarantees for starvation and emergencies.
It creates also a strong accountability framework for protection of these entitlements and allows imposition of fines on defaulters and compensation to the victim.
It also envisages a strong grievance redressal and monitoring system, from the centre to the block level
10:40 PM |
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