The proposals on the food security law, tentatively agreed upon by the National Advisory Council yesterday, were opposed by right to food campaigners who insisted their concerns should be taken on board before the bill was put into shape.
Some of the campaigners, such as Nikhil Dey and Kavita Srivastava, were closely associated with council members Jean Dreze, Aruna Roy and Harsh Mander when they had worked together on the issue of legislating food security.
The campaigners’ response to the council’s blueprint, which needs to be fine-tuned, might have passed off as another expression of protest but for the perception that the “radicals” on the panel are still pushing their case for a much more inclusive law than the “conservatives” want and intend to step up pressure through the activists.
Among the objections listed were:
The council’s news release of July 14 spoke of the desirability of “time-bound universalisation” of food grain entitlements without spelling out the timeline
It was ambiguous about the food entitlements of those in areas that will not be covered in the first phase of the operation of the law
Grain entitlements should be allocated to individuals instead of a household
Silence on pulses and oil limits.