Even while the parliamentary standing committee has begun deliberating on the National Food Security Bill, Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has cautioned that the objective of the ambitious food entitlement legislation may not be achieved if it’s implemented through the existing PDS. Mr Pawar’s statement was preceded by Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s remark, that “he is losing his sleep over the growing subsidy burden”.
Speaking at a conference on “Targeted Public Distribution System and Storage”, which is being attended by ministers of states, Mr Pawar said “its (food bill) goal could not be achieved in letter and spirit given the present structure of PDS”. Earlier, Mr Mukherjee expressed concern over the rising subsidy bill, which is expected to overshoot `2.34 lakh crore mark this fiscal. The subsidy burden due to food bill alone is expected to go up from the current `65,000 crore to `93,000 crore apart from additional investment needed in agriculture to make the legislation viable.
“I will be failing in my duty if I do not emphasise the fact that the Food Security Act will never succeed in achieving its goal in letter and spirit, if we try to push the same through the existing PDS apparatus,” said the agriculture minister. Mr Pawar has been a critique of the food bill for a long time and once had remarked “I don’t want Soviet Russia to happen here” before the legislation was taken up by the Cabinet for approval.
The agriculture minister stressed that “a massive process re-engineering” was required to make the PDS compatible with the food bill. He explained that there are serious limitations in the existing PDS. “Each state must take up the reforms in the PDS in mission mode before we launch the food security,” he added. The food minister K.V. Thomas, when asked about Mr Pawar’s observations, agreed and said “we need to produce more and strengthen PDS to implement this law”.