The government today approved the revised Food Security Bill to provide for uniform 5 kg of foodgrains per month per person at a highly subsidised price of 1 to 3 rupees per kg to two-thirds of the country's population.
However, about 2.43 crore poorest of the poor families covered under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) scheme under PDS would get legal entitlement to 35 kg of foodgrain per family per month.
Talking to reporters after the Cabinet meeting in New Delhi today, Food Minister K V Thomas said that the government will try to bring the amendments to the Food Bill in Parliament before Friday.
He said,the extra burden on the food subsidy would be about 20,000 crore rupees from the current level, while foodgrains requirement is expected to be 61.23 million tonnes.
Uniform prices of 3, 2 and 1 rupee per kg for rice, wheat and coarse grains, will be applicable to all eligible beneficiaries. The prices would be revised after three years from the implementation of the Act.
In the original bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha in December 2011, beneficiaries were divided into priority and general households.
Priority households were entitled to 7 kg of rice, wheat and coarse grains per person per month at 3, 2 and 1rupee per kg.
The amendments to the bill have been done in line with the Parliamentary Standing Committee report that suggested doing away with dividing beneficiaries into two categories.
The panel had advocated uniform monthly entitlement of 5 kg grain per person at uniform price.
Under the current public distribution system (PDS), BPL and AAY families get 35kg of foodgrains per month, while the allocations for APL families range between 15kg to 35kg.
Currently, rice is supplied to AAY families at Rs 3/kg, BPL families at Rs 5.65/kg and APL families at Rs 8.30/kg.
Wheat is sold at Rs 2/kg to AAY families, while BPL gets wheat at Rs 4.15/kg and APL at Rs 6.10/kg.
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, CCEA today approved a package of over 250 crore rupees to beef up police forces in the naxalite affected areas. Sources said the CCEA, however, deferred a decision on the decontrol of sugar sector.
