FOOD BILL NEEDS GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MECHANISM’ Wednesday, 10 July 2013 | PNS | BALANGIR | in Bhubaneswar

‘FOOD BILL NEEDS GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MECHANISM’

Wednesday, 10 July 2013 | PNS | BALANGIR | in Bhubaneswar

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The Regional Centre for Development Cooperation (RCDC) and the Samuhik Bikash Manch in collaboration with the Odisha Khadya Adhikar Aviyan (OKAA) organised a consultation cum interface meeting on Food Security Bill and the people’s plan.

The meeting observed that the amended bill is too narrow in its approach and restricts the food requisites and if it becomes an act within six months, it can hardly meet the food security. Further, it does not specify any time frame for the rolling out of entitlements.

One of the most debatable points is that the Government states to provide nutritious food, but how can nutrition be ensured only by providing food grains like rice, wheat and coarse grain? The bill has only provision for cereals with no entitlements to basic necessities such as pulses and edible oil required to combat malnutrition. The bill entitles only 67 per cent of the population to subsidised food grains under the PDS which would continue with the legacy of dividing population into APL-BPL categories and the associated problem of unfair exclusion of 33 per cent of the food insecure households from the PDS.

Only the 2.5 crore households currently covered under the Antodaya Anna Yojana (10 per cent of the country’s population) will get 35 kg of food grains a month and the rest of the population entitled to PDS will get 5kg of food grains per month which accounts to 167 grams per a day. This is just a mockery of food security, the participants in the meeting observed.

“If we analyse the crop productivity of our State and the rise in upland cultivation of cash crops like maize, cotton etc where from will they get the coarse grains?  We are still ambiguous on consequences of direct cash transfer, entry of private contractors and commercial interests in the supply of food in ICDS especially insisting on specific norms related to food safety acts and micronutrient norms. Apart from all these, the bill has no strong grievance redress mechanism,” the participants viewed.

For the bill to be effective, there needs to be in place a strong, decentralized and independent grievance redress mechanism that includes Panchayat or Block level grievance redress officers with power to impose penalties on erring officials, demanded Samuhik Bikash Committee.

Among the eminent person present in the consultation were ACSO Khageswar Panda, State advisor to Supreme Court on Commission on Right to Food Rajkishor Mishra,, RCDC regional manager Amar Kumar Gouda, secretary Narendra Bohidar, Samuhik Bikash Manch, Balangir president Bisakha Bhanja, Gandhamardan Surakhya Action Committee president Tikendra Jal, District Jala Bandhu Network president Nakular Sahu, RCDC programme officers Jyoti Prakash Sahoo and Pramod Bagarti.