By IANS,
Agartala: The Left Front government in Tripura Saturday said the National Food Security (NFS) draft bill in its present form is grossly inadequate in achieving its objectives.
“The NFS draft bill is against the interests of the poor and the middle class as it weakens the public distribution system (PDS). To control the market, the PDS must be a strong arrangement,” Tripura Food and Civil Supplies Minister Manik Dey told reporters.
“As per the present form of the NFS bill, 25 percent rural people and 50 percent urban citizens would be out of the purview of the PDS,” he said.
The Left Front government headed by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar recently discussed the draft NFS bill sent by the central government as part of the opinion gathering.
“Tripura’s views and objection about provisions of the draft NFS bill have already been communicated to the central government,” the minister added.
“There must be universal coverage of PDS. The NFS draft bill has proposed to provide a maximum foodgrain of 7 kg per head per month for priority household (poor people) and 3 kg per head per month for the general household (middle class). We demand 7 kg per head per month for all,” Dey added.
The minister alleged that the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government had been trying to withdraw the PDS and encourage black-marketing of food items.
“The NFS draft bill proposes that the state government has to be liable to make payment of food security allowance in case of failure to supply entitled quantity of foodgrain to the entitled person. The Left Front government oppose this provision,” the food minister said.
“The draft bill has so many flaws,” said the Marxist trade union leader-turned-minister.
The ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) launched a week-long protest from Nov 1, demanding an overhaul of the draft NFS bill.