Terming the draft Food Security Bill as a ‘farce', the National Advisory Council (NAC) member, Ms Aruna Roy, economist Prof Jean Dreze (ex-NAC), civil liberties activist, Dr Binayak Sen, and others have written an open letter to the Prime Minister.

The former and present NAC members, along with civil society members of the Right to Food Campaign, rejected the EGoM-cleared draft and appealed to the Cabinet not to approve the Bill in its present form.

The Bill cleared by the EGoM (Empowered Group of Ministers) makes a complete mockery of the idea of food security for all and dilutes even existing entitlements obtained through the Supreme Court, says the letter.

They appealed to the Prime Minister to “sincerely respond' to the needs of hunger and malnutrition of women, children and excluded groups, save the public distribution system and farmers.

They flayed the EGoM for interpreting food security only as distribution of cereals and cooked meals and remaining completely silent on pulses, millets and oil. “As in the earlier EGoM draft of March 2010, there is no commitment towards nutritional security or to see production, procurement (including local procurement), storage and distribution as an integrated process in order to address issues of food and nutritional security,” the letter adds.

Refuting the Government's claim that the Bill was based on the NAC's draft, they said it does “complete injustice to even the already diluted draft prepared by the NAC,” it says.

The letter appealed for inclusion of universalisation of PDS entitlements, decentralisation of procurement and storage of food, measures to address child malnutrition, defined entitlements for vulnerable groups etc.

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