It promises to bring in the National Food Security bill that the Congress chief hopes will signpost UPA-II’s continuing commitment to social and economic inclusion in the way that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act did UPA-I.
But finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s restatement of the Centre’s position on indexing MNREGA wages to the consumer price index for agricultural labour is a “let down”, said members.
The NAC has been campaigning to include Mnrega wages in the Minimum Wages Act. Its argument is that delinking MNREGA from the act — it outlaws bonded labour and recognises every worker as a lawful wage-earner — equates those covered by the employment guarantee law to indentured labour without a legal cover.
The Centre’s contention is the index mechanism gives wages far higher than the statutory minimum one to MNREGA workers in many states. Mukherjee noted in his speech that the enhanced wage rate had “resulted in significant enhancements of wages for the (MNREGA) beneficiaries across the country”.
An NAC member said: “That the food rights bill was mentioned in the minister’s budget speech is a relief. Indexing Mnrega wages to the consumer price index is also a step forward but we will stick to our stand on bringing them under the Minimum Wages Act.”
For N.C. Saxena, another member who was on the working group on food security, the budget was “disappointing” in that it did not talk of “new policies, programme delivery and funds’ use”. He said there was no evaluation of the existing public distribution systems.
Saxena’s view was without waiting for the food bill to be legislated, the government could have started moving in “that direction” by distributing food entitlements under the proposed law rightaway to those living below the poverty line.
“If the budget is about receipts and expenditures, it’s okay. But if the budget is supposed to reflect how India plans to achieve the targets on social indicators, it drew a blank,” he said.
The NAC’s expectations were fuelled by the “triumphs” it notched up in Saturday’s meeting chaired by Sonia after endless uncertainty over the fate of its key proposals.
Apart from an assurance that the food bill would go through exactly the way it wanted, sources said the NAC was confident its proposals for “proper” implementation of the Recognition of Forest Rights Act, 2006, would be accepted by the Centre.
Among other suggestions, it laid down procedures to facilitate tribals’ right over forest produce without being short-changed by the administration, contractors and local vested interests.