Food Security or Poll gimmick ?
Ashutosh Varshney has missed the point which the opposition is making with regard to Food Security Ordinance in his philosophic essay on the subject (IE, July 12).Nobody in his right mind has any problem with any scheme of providing subsidized food grains to the poor especially when the food-grains procured are rotting in the open in government's godowns. Many states have similar programme, especially in the BJP-ruled Chattisgarh state which monitor food-grains trucks with GPS and sends sms to the ration-card holders. What is opposed is the hurry with which the UPA government wants to do it with an ordinance when Monsoon session is not far away. The coverage of the scheme is also problematic – 50% in urban areas and 75% in rural areas. This also means decades of Congress rule has not dented poverty in spite of many slogans such 'garibi hatao' and 'amm admi' just before the elections in the past decades. Just before the last parliamentary election, UPA government came out with two other schemes - guaranteed 100 days of work for one adult in a family and waiver of farmers loan which has not helped most of the farm workers and the farmers. Fact is UPA has no achievement to show-off. It has just coined a new slogan for the next election.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-costs-of-no-food-security/1140754/0
July 14, 2013.
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