The much-debated and much-delayed food security initiative – seen as the Congress’s last-ditch attempt to win next elections – has finally had a partial and somewhat tentative rollout.

The scheme made its debut on August 20, the birth anniversary of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, in the two states of Delhi and Haryana. While Congress chief Sonia Gandhi formally launched the scheme in the national capital along with chief minister Sheila Dikshit, Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda chose Panipat for the launch.

However, the move has a tentative air about it because the food security legislation faces uncertainty in parliament. The legislation, also known euphemistically as Right to Food, has been a matter of hot debate – among political parties, among states and among headline-making economists. After completing the final round of consultations with the states in February, food minister KV Thomas dearly wished to get the food security bill during the budget session. However, that did not happen thanks to repeated disruptions in parliament over the various scandals.

The government then toyed with the idea of calling a special session of parliament exclusively on this issue. Surprisingly, the main opposition BJP was supportive of the legislation, and yet the cabinet chose to take the short cut of issuing an ordinance in July. Now, the government has to get it ratified during the ongoing monsoon session. If it fails to do so, the ordinance will lapse and there will be a question mark over the scheme rolled out in Delhi and Haryana.

Though the non-Congress states are not completely on board, the Congress-led UPA would like this scheme to be in place before next year’s general elections to prove its inclusive, pro-poor credentials.

At the launch event, Sonia Gandhi said, “We planned this scheme so that nobody remains hungry in the country and no one’s child goes to sleep on en empty stomach,” she said. She also said that two-third of the nation’s total population would be provided food grains at highly subsidized rates. Once the ordinance is ratified by parliament, 75 percent rural and 50 percent urban population will benefit from it.

But the big question remains how effectively the scheme will be implemented. There are many challenges still need to be addressed, the biggest being corruption in the public distribution system. Many reports show that Delhi has one of the most corrupt public distribution systems.

Similar schemes launched in Delhi in recent years haven't done very well on the ground. Take the Annashree scheme for example, which was launched in December last year in which people, who do not have ration cards, were to be given a cash handout of Rs 600 per month. The target was to cover two lakh beneficiaries, but not even one lakh people have been covered yet.

DELHI
Meanwhile, the national capital will implement the food security initiative in two phases. The first phase would include people cover under: Antyodaya Anna Yojana, BPL, ration card holders living in slums and resettlement colonies. About 32 lakh people would be covered under this scheme by September 1 in Delhi. In all 73 lakh people would be covered by December or January next year. The benefit would be extended to the senior most woman member of an eligible family through Aadhaar-based national food security cards.

Under the scheme in Delhi, the identified families would be eligible for wheat at Rs 2 per kg, rice at Rs 3 per kg and coarse grains at Re 1 per kg.

HARYANA
The state aims to provide food security to 127 lakh people: 90.28 lakh (54.61 percent) in rural areas and 36.21 lakh (41.05 percent) in urban areas. The Hooda government will provide 2.5 kg dal at the subsidised rate of Rs 20 per kg under the ‘Dal Roti Scheme’ to the targeted beneficiaries from September. Around 13 lakh families will benefit from the scheme.