NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent yesterday to a landmark food welfare programme targeting the “poorest of the poor”, the government announced.
“The president has signed the ordinance,” a senior food ministry official said, two days after the cabinet sent the National Food Security measure to Mukherjee.
The must eventually be approved by parliament.
The multi-billion-dollar populist programme is the largest in the world, offering subsidised grains to nearly 70 percent of the population, or more than 800 million people.
“The food security bill has special focus on the needs of the poorest of the poor, women and children,” the ministry said in statement.
“Up to 75 percent of the rural population and up to 50 percent of the urban population will have uniform entitlement of five kilos per month at highly subsidised prices,” it added.
The flagship programme has been pushed by the head of the ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, who has insisted on honouring a 2009 election pledge.
The measure would increase the annual food subsidy bill to Rs1.2tn, the statement said.
The measure is considered key to the Congress-led coalition’s fortunes in elections next year.
The bill had been expected to be cleared by lawmakers in parliament in February, but it was never introduced due to opposition protests.
Opposition parties 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.
AFP
