Flaying the Shanta Kumar panel’s recommendations to reduce coverage of subsidised foodgrains from 67 per cent of the population to 40 per cent, food rights activists have urged the Modi government to reject the report, as it would mean going back on the BJP’s election promises.

The panel, headed by BJP MP Shanta Kumar, was constituted to recommend the restructuring the Food Corporation of India. In a statement, the Right to Food Campaign, an umbrella of about 100 organisations that includes activists Aruna Roy, Jean Dreze and Biraj Patnaik among others, reminded the PM of the letter that he had written, as Gujarat CM, to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in September 2013 on the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

Modi had lamented the fact that the Food Security Ordinance was too minimalistic and “does not assure an individual of having two meals a day”.

Minimalist law

Even during the debate on the Act in Parliament in 2013, many BJP leaders had criticised the UPA government for bringing in a “minimalist” law, and had also introduced amendments towards universalising PDS benefits.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who was leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha then, had berated the UPA government on this issue.

“Now that they (BJP) are in a majority in Parliament, it is time for them to ensure that these provisions are included in the Act and not to dilute even the little that has been gained through the NFSA,’ said the statement, adding that if the Centre accepts the Shanta Kumar panel recommendations, “they will be going back on the promises made by them in the BJP election manifesto.”

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