Left urges food security for all

The Left parties on Saturday called for amending the draft Food Security Bill to ensure a food security system that covers all sections of the people. Left party leaders Prakash Karat (general secretary, Communist Party of India-Marxist), S. Sudhakar Reddy (general secretary, Communist Party of Idia), Debabrata Biswas (general secretary, Forward Bloc) and Abani Roy (secretary, Revolutionary Socialist Party) met the prime minister at his official residence and submitted a memorandum to him in this regard. Karat later told reporters that at the conclusion of a five-day dharna-on (sit-in) food security by the Left parties in the national capital from July.30 to Aug.3, the participants from across the country had “Unanimously rejected the draft Food Security Bill presently before the Parliamentary Standing Committee.” The memorandum noted that India produced enough foodgrains to ensure a food security system that covers all sections of the people. However, the targeted system introduced as “part of the so-called economic reforms from the decade of the nineties has proved to be a failure.” The system has led to exclusion of large sections of people who require subsidised foodgrains. “With the largest numbers of hungry people in the world, India requires a comprehensive and inclusive food security system, which can only be provided by scrapping the targeted system and replacing it with a universal system,” it added. “It has been shown that in a country like India, with a large majority of the workforce in the unorganised sector with no fixed income, the errors of exclusion far outweigh those of inclusion in a targeted system,” the memorandum said. It called for protecting farmers from the volatility of market manipulation by powerful lobbies and pointed out that the National Farmers Commission has recommended for a Maximum Sales Price (MSP) based on the actual cost of production, which is constantly rising given the increase in the prices of fertiliser, diesel, pesticides, seeds, electricity and other inputs plus a 50 per cent profit margin. This is an important aspect of providing food security. The Left parties called for universal distribution of surplus foodgrain stocks of around 50 million tonnes held by the government instead of exporting it in the name of “liquidating the stocks.” “Already 2.5 million tonnes have been exported. The grains are given at subsidised prices to private traders. Substantial amount of this grain will be ultimately used as cattle feed in developed countries,” it noted. “We believe that the grains should be distributed universally. Particularly at a time when India is facing one of its worst droughts, export of foodgrains is shortsighted and will only benefit big agribusinesses. “We are against exports at this time,” the memorandum said The left parties also objected to linking the above poverty line (APL) subsidy to acceptance by states of “certain objectionable conditions” such as introduction of cash transfers terming it as encroachment on the rights of the states. “We believe that the bill in its present form will legalise food insecurity and must be radically changed so as to include a minimum allocation of 35 kilogrammes of foodgrains of reasonable quality per family at the maximum price of two rupees a kilo. “This should be a legally enforceable universal right. “Besides scrapping divisions, conditions such as cash transfers should be eliminated,” the memorandum said. From:Gulftoday