Arun Maira slams Food Security Ordinance as unsustainable

NEW DELHI: Planning Commission member Arun Maira has lashed out at the government’s Food Security Bill, saying that such a form of inclusion is not sustainable as it will have a big effect on fiscal deficit in coming years. “The government needs to change its orientation towards inclusion if we want a more inclusive, more sustainable and faster growth. If inclusion is to give hand-outs to those, who currently do not have enough, it is not sustainable because the money to give that hand-out will come from the economy,” Maira said on the sidelines of a Ficci event on Empowering India. “This will result in a bad situation for the fiscal deficit in the fifth year of the current plan period,” he said.

According to Maira, there are people who do not want handouts. “They want good life and good income. Hence government should focus on creating more jobs and more employment as the way to inclusion rather than hand-outs. The idea should be to continue putting inputs into people in terms of doing much more for health and education and also create opportunities for them to earn and live a dignified life,” he added.

Credit rating agency Crisil had recently estimated that the fiscal deficit for the year could rise to 5.1 per cent from the previously estimated 4.8 per cent, largely on account of this ambitious scheme of the government. Centre had recently brought in an ordinance for Food Security Bill, which has drawn lot of criticism from the opposition who feels the haste on the government’s part is in its preparations for the general elections in 2014.

The programme gives the nation’s two-thirds population the right to highly subsidised rates of Rs 1-3 per kg. The government would require 62 million tonnes of food grain to implement this programme, costing the exchequer Rs 1,25,000 crore annually.

yogima.seth@timesgroup.com