Food bill doomed due to lack of funds: Pawar

In what is perhaps an indicator of the growing rift between the Congress and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, Pawar on Sunday hit out at the food security bill, saying there were simply not enough funds to implement it in its present form.

Pawar, who was never quite in tune the Congress on the food security legislation, said in a TV interview, "My grievance is only one - the total budgeted provision for entire agriculture ministry is Rs20,000 crore. And subsidy is, as of today, Rs65,000 crore. It might go up to Rs1 lakh crore in the current year.

"The solution is that unless and until we increase agriculture production, we will not be able to implement, we will not be comfortable to implement this (food security bill)," Pawar told a TV channel.

Keeping an eye on the ongoing assembly elections in five states, including Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has pushed for early introduction of the food security legislation in Parliament.

When it was pointed out that the food law was United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi's pet project, Pawar said, "This is not a question of an individual. This is a question of investment in agriculture."

The draft law, which aims to provide legal right over subsidised foodgrains to 63.5 per cent of the country's population, has been referred to the parliamentary standing committee.

It proposes to give legal entitlement to food to 75 per cent of the people in rural areas, including at least 46 per cent in the priority section (which is the same as below poverty line families in the existing public distribution system).

In urban areas, up to 50 per cent of people will be covered under the proposed law, of which at least 28 per cent will be in the priority category.