New Delhi: After the rural job guarantee scheme, Congress President Sonia Gandhi is now focusing on the ambitious national food security act proposal, seeking to make it UPA's flagship scheme in its second term.
Sonia Gandhi, who is also UPA Chairperson, has made a strong pitch for providing 35 kg of cereals at Rs 3 per kg each month to the poor in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
She has asked Singh to fulfil the party's poll promise of enacting such a law and has even provided broad outlines of the proposed legislation in the letter.
This is perhaps her first letter to the Prime Minister after the UPA headed by her came to power for a second time in a row last month.
Sonia Gandhi has told Manmohan Singh that the food security act was one of the most prominent and important commitments made by the party in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said the party President has written to the Prime Minister about the broad parameters regarding the proposed act.
Sonia Gandhi had suggested expanding the scope of beneficiaries to include sections like women, handicapped and single parent apart from BPL cardholders.
In the party manifesto, Congress had promised to frame such an act to guarantee access to substantial quantity of food for all, particularly the most vulnerable sections of society.
Later, in the President's address to the joint sitting of Parliament, the Government had said it proposed to enact the law "that will provide statutory basis for a framework which assures food security to all."
The Government also said that the legislation will be used to bring about broader systemic reform in public distribution system.
While the party had promised that every family living below poverty line will be entitled, by law, to 25 kg of rice or wheat per month at Rs 3 per kg, Gandhi in her letter has asked for providing 35 kg of cereals at that rate to an expanded list of beneficiaries.
The beneficiaries include destitute and vulnerable households besides families below poverty line and those eligible under the Antyodaya Yojana.
The legislation also proposes issuing targeted photo identity cards to the needy after a country-wide survey for their identification.
There is also a provision for giving special ID cards to people affected by natural calamities and communal violence.
In order to streamline food supply to the needy, the the draft legislation moots full computerisation of Public Distribution System in states as well as vigil of the PDS through quarterly meetings between shop-owners and representatives of the local bodies.
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