What about the grains? The new enactment of the new bill would necessitate procurement of over 60 million tonnes of food grain, which is an addition of anywhere between 10-12 million tonnes to the current figures. Can the existing strong agrarian states such as Punjab, Andhra Pradesh or Haryana produce grains in excess to meet the sudden increasing demand?

Even if the government bears the addition fiscal burden and the states procure adequate food grains, the weak and corrupt distribution system in the country will nullify all these efforts. The new bill doesn’t specify a proper distribution mechanism or ways to identify the beneficiaries. Major policy changes are needed to ensure effective delivery and bold decision are to be taken to deal with theft, leakage or diversion of the food grains.

Private trade might take a back seat as the demand for food grains in the new scheme would eat the lion’s share of the production. This scenario would leave the large number of people who depend on the private market for grain in dark. In addition, compressing the private trade would lead to food inflation. 

While many argue that Sonia Gandhi’s flagship Food Security Bill is nothing but an attempt to repackage the old wine in a new package, it would be a historical blunder if the UPA government fails to taste the desired results. When all is said and done, despite the drawbacks, this effort needs to be fine tuned and the government, which was very generous to give a tax exemption of 4.6 lakh crore to industry for the last two years, should go to any extent to use its all powers to ensure a hunger free India.