(1) The National Food Security Ordinance, 2013 (Ord. 7 of 2013) is hereby repealed.
(2) Notwithstanding such repeal,—
(a) anything done, any action taken or any identification of eligible households made; or
(b) any right, entitlement, privilege, obligation or liability acquired, accrued or incurred; or
(c) any guidelines framed or directions issued; or
(d) any investigation, inquiry or any other legal proceeding initiated, conducted or continued in respect of such right, entitlement, privilege, obligation or liability as aforesaid; or
(e) any penalty imposed in respect of any offence, under the said Ordinance shall be deemed to have been done, taken, made, acquired, accrued, incurred, framed, issued, initiated, conducted, continued or imposed under the corresponding provisions of this Act.
SCHEDULE I [See sections 3(1), 22(1),
(3) and 24(2), (3)] SUBSIDISED PRICES UNDER TARGETED PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM Eligible households shall be entitled to foodgrains under section 3 at the subsidised price not exceeding rupees 3 per kg for rice, rupees 2 per kg for wheat and rupee 1 per kg for coarse grains for a period of three years from the date of commencement of this Act; and thereafter, at such price, as may be fixed by the Central Government, from time to time, not exceeding,—
(i) the minimum support price for wheat and coarse grains; and
(ii) the derived minimum support price for rice, as the case may be.
SCHEDULE II [See sections 4(a), 5(1) and 6] NUTRITIONAL STANDARDS Nutritional standards: The nutritional standards for children in the age group of6 months to 3 years, age group of 3 to 6 years and pregnant women and lactating mothers required to be met by providing “Take Home Rations” or nutritious hot cooked meal in accordance with the Integrated Child Development Services Scheme and nutritional standards for children in lower and upper primary classes under the Mid Day Meal Scheme are as follows:
Serial Category Type of Calories Protein number meal2 (Kcal) (g) 1 2 3 4 5 1. Children (6 months to 3 Take Home Ration 500 12-15 years) 2. Children (3 to 6 years) Morning Snack and e 500 12-15 3. Children (6 months to Hot Cooked Meal Take Home Ration 800 20-25 6 years) who are malnourished 4. Lower primary classes Hot Cooked Meal 450 12 5. Upper primary classes Hot Cooked Meal 700 20 6. Pregnant women and Take Home Ration 600 18-20 Lactating mothers SCHEDULE III (See section 31) PROVISIONS FOR ADVANCING FOOD SECURITY
(1) Revitalisation of Agriculture—
(a) agrarian reforms through measures for securing interests of small and marginal farmers;
(b) increase in investments in agriculture, including research and development, extension services, micro and minor irrigation and power to increase productivity and production;
(c) ensuring livelihood security to farmers by way of remunerative prices, access to inputs, credit, irrigation, power, crop insurance, etc.;
(d) prohibiting unwarranted diversion of land and water from food production.
(2) Procurement, Storage and Movement related interventions—
(a) incentivizing decentralised procurement including procurement of coarse grains;
(b) geographical diversification of procurement operations;
(c) augmentation of adequate decentralised modern and scientific storage;
(d) giving top priority to movement of foodgrains and providing sufficient number of rakes for this purpose, including expanding the line capacity of railways to facilitate foodgrain movement from surplus to consuming regions.
(3) Others: Access to—
(a) safe and adequate drinking water and sanitation;
(b) health care;
(c) nutritional, health and education support to adolescent girls;
(d) adequate pensions for senior citizens, persons with disability and single women.
SCHEDULE IV [See section 3(1)] STATE-WISE ALLOCATION OF FOODGRAINS S. Name of the State Quantity (in lakh tons) No. 1 2 3 1. Andhra Pradesh 32.10 2. Arunachal Pradesh 0.89 3. Assam 16.95 4. Bihar 55.27 5. Chhattisgarh 12.91 6. Delhi 5.73 7. Goa e 0.59 8. Gujarat 23.95 9. Haryana 7.95 10. Himachal Pradesh 5.08 11. Jammu and Kashmir 7.51 12. Jharkhand 16.96 13. Karnataka 25.56 14. Kerala 14.25 15. Madhya Pradesh 34.68 16. Maharashtra 45.02 17. Manipur 1.51 18. Meghalaya 1.76 19. Mizoram 0.66 20. Nagaland 1.38 21. Odisha 21.09 22. Punjab 8.70 23. Rajasthan 27.92 24. Sikkim 0.44 25. Tamilnadu 36.78 26. Tripura 2.71 27. Uttar Pradesh 96.15 28. Uttarakhand 5.03 1 2 3 29. West Bengal 38.49 30. Andaman and Nicobar Islands 0.16 31. Chandigarh 0.31 32. Dadra and Nagar Haveli 0.15 33. Daman and Diu 0.07 34. Lakshadweep 0.05 35. Pudducherry 0.50 Total 549.26 STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS Article 47 of the Constitution, inter alia, provides that the State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which India is a signatory, also cast responsibilities on all State parties to recognise the right of everyone to adequate food. Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger is one of the goals under the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. 2. In pursuance of the constitutional and the international conventions obligations, providing food security has been focus of the Government’s planning and policy. Food security means availability of sufficient foodgrains to meet the domestic demand as well as access, at the individual level, to adequate quantities of food at affordable prices. Attainment of self-sufficiency in foodgrains production at the national level has been one of the major achievements of the country. In order to address the issue of food security at the household level, the Government is implementing the Targeted Public Distribution System under which subsidised foodgrains are provided to the Below Poverty Line, including Antyodaya Anna Yojana, and Above Poverty Line households. While the Below Poverty Line households under the Targeted Public Distribution System receive thirty-five kilograms foodgrains per family per month, the allocation to Above Poverty Line households depends upon availability of foodgrains in the Central pool.
Allocations for other food based welfare schemes for women and children, natural disasters, etc., are also being made at subsidised rates.
3. Ensuring food security of the people, however, continues to be a challenge. The nutritional status of the population, and especially of women and children, also needs to be improved to enhance the quality of human resource of the country. The proposed legislation marks a paradigm shift in addressing the problem of food security—from the current welfare approach to a right based approach. Besides expanding coverage of the Targeted Public Distribution System, the proposed legislation would confer legal rights on eligible beneficiaries to receive entitled quantities of foodgrains at highly subsidised prices. It will also confer legal rights on women and children to receive meal free of charge. 4. In view of the foregoing, the National Food Security Bill, 2011 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 22nd December, 2011. Subsequently, the said Bill was referred to the Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution for examination and Report. The Standing Committee presented its Report to the Speaker, Lok Sabha on 17th January, 2013. The recommendations of the Standing Committee were examined on priority; and accordingly the Government gave notice in the Lok Sabha in the Budget Session for consideration and passing of the said Bill along with official amendments. However, Parliament was adjourned sine die on 8th May, 2013 and thereafter both the Houses were prorogued. 5. In view of the time that has already lapsed in passing of the National Food Security Bill, 2011 since its announcement by the then President of India in her address to the Joint Session of Parliament on 4th June, 2009, and further delay in getting it passed through Parliament, the Government was of the considered view that it will not be appropriate to further delay the reaching of the proposed benefits of the Bill to the people of the country. 6. As both the Houses of Parliament were not in Session and immediate action was required to be taken to ensure that the benefits of the proposed legislation reach the people at the earliest, the President promulgated the National Food Security Ordinance, 2013 on 5th July, 2013. 7. It is, now proposed to replace the National Food Security Ordinance, 2013 with the National Food Security Bill, 2013, to—
(a) provide for food and nutritional security, in human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity;
(b) entitle every person belonging to priority households, to receive every month from the State Government, under the Targeted Public Distribution System, five kilograms of foodgrains per person per month, at subsidised prices specified in Schedule I to the proposed legislation. The households covered under Antyodaya Anna Yojana shall be entitled to receive thirty-five kilograms of foodgrains per household per month at the prices specified in Schedule I. The said entitlements at subsidised prices shall extend up to seventy-five per cent. of the rural population and up to fifty per cent. of the urban population;
(c) entitle every pregnant woman and lactating mother to meal, free of charge, during pregnancy and six months after child birth, through the local anganwadi, so as to meet the nutritional standards specified in Schedule II; and to provide to such women maternity benefit of not less than rupees six thousand in such instalments as may be prescribed by the Central Government;
(d) entitle every child up to the age of fourteen years—(i) age appropriate meal, free of charge, through the local anganwadi so as to meet the nutritional standards specified in Schedule II in the case of children in the age group of six months to six years; and (ii) one mid day meal, free of charge, everyday, except on school holidays, in all schools run by local bodies, Government and Government aided schools, to children up to class VIII or within the age group of six to fourteen years, whichever is applicable, so as to meet the nutritional standards specified in Schedule II;
(e) require the State Government to identify and provide meals through the local anganwadi, free of charge, to children who suffer from malnutrition, so as to meet the nutritional standards specified in Schedule II; and implement schemes covering entitlements of women and children in accordance with the guidelines, including cost sharing, between the Central Government and the State Governments in such manner as may be prescribed by the Central Government;
(f) entitle the eligible persons under Chapter II of the proposed legislation, to receive such food security allowance from the concerned State Government to be paid to each person, in case of non- supply of the entitled quantities of foodgrains or meals, within the time and manner prescribed by the Central Government;
(g) provide subsidised foodgrains under the Targeted Public Distribution System to specified percentage of rural and urban population, at the all India level and empower the Central Government to determine the State-wise percentage coverage;
(h) enable the State Government to prescribe guidelines for identification of priority households, for the purposes of their entitlement under the proposed legislation and identify such households and the households to be covered under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, in accordance with guidelines applicable to the scheme;
(i) progressively undertake necessary reforms by the Central and State Governments in the Targeted Public Distribution System in consonance with the role envisaged for them in the proposed legislation;
(j) treat the eldest woman who is not less than eighteen years of age, in every eligible household, to be head of the household for the purpose of issue of ration cards;
(k) impose obligation upon the State Governments to put in place an internal grievance redressal mechanism which may include call centres, help lines, designation of nodal officers, or such other mechanism as may be prescribed by the respective Governments; and for expeditious and effective redressal of grievances of the aggrieved persons in matters relating to distribution of entitled foodgrains or meals under Chapter II of the proposed legislation, a District Grievance Redressal Officer, with requisite staff, to be appointed by the State Government for each District, to enforce these entitlements and investigate and redress grievances;
(l) make provision for State Food Commission to be constituted by every State Government for the purpose of monitoring and review of implementation of the proposed legislation;
(m) impose obligation upon the Central Government to ensure regular supply of foodgrains for persons belonging to eligible households and allocate the required quantity of foodgrains to the State Governments under the Targeted Public Distribution System from the central pool as per the entitlements and at prices specified in Schedule I to the proposed legislation;
(n) make provision for implementation and monitoring by the State Government of the schemes of various Ministries and Departments of the Central Government in accordance with guidelines issued by the Central Government for each scheme, and their own schemes, for ensuring food security to the targeted beneficiaries in their State; and make the local authorities responsible, for the proper implementation of the proposed legislation in their respective areas;
(o) conduct or cause to be conducted by every local authority, or any other authority or body, as may be authorised by the State Government, periodic social audits on the functioning of fair price shops, Targeted Public Distribution System and other welfare schemes, and cause to publicise its findings and take necessary action, in such manner as may be prescribed by the State Government;
(p) impose penalty upon any public servant or authority found guilty, by the State Commission at the time of deciding any complaint or appeal, of failing to provide the relief recommended by the District Grievance Redressal Officer, without reasonable cause, or wilfully ignoring such recommendation, not exceeding five thousand rupees after giving an opportunity of being heard.
8. The notes on clauses explain in detail the various provisions contained in the replacement Bill. 9. The Bill seeks to achieve the above objectives.
In K. V. THOMAS.
NEW DELHI; The 5th August, 2013.