Cabinet may push draft ordinance on Food Bill

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New Delhi: Sceptical about the smooth running of Parliament even in the Monsoon Session, likely to begin in the third week of this month, due to a “confrontationist” Opposition, the government is once again considering bringing in an ordinance to roll out the ambitious National Food Security Bill.
A draft ordinance is high on the agenda of the Union Cabinet at its meeting here on Wednesday.
Sources in the government said as political parties were not forthcoming since the Bill was first placed before the Cabinet last month, and the Uttarakhand disaster took place in the meantime, it was decided to take the matter again to the Cabinet for a discussion.
The UPA appears to be in a hurry to push through the politically sensitive legislation keeping in mind crucial state elections due in October-November this year and the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for April-May next year.
“The Congress has high states in state elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi,” a party source pointed out.
"The Congress has high stakes in the elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi. Besides, the Bill needs at least six months to be effectively rolled out from the day of its promulgation. Therefore, the government is running out of time in the real sense,” sources said.
When the matter had come up for discussion in the last Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath and Union minister of state for food K. V. Thomas to reach out to political parties to build a consensus.
However, sources said, no serious efforts were made by either minister; Nath was out of the country for most of the time and Prof. Thomas confined himself to his constituency in Kochi.
The food minister, however, did meet NCP chief and Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar in a bid to bring him on the board, as he has been critical of the government’s move.