Rahul Gandhi to address PCC chiefs on Food Security scheme

New Delhi: After Congress President Sonia Gandhi's recent interaction with Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states, party Vice President Rahul Gandhi will hold deliberations with PCC chiefs of all states on July 27 on the Congress-led UPA Government’s flagship scheme Food Security Bill.

Rahul Gandhi will address the PCC chiefs of states including those ruled by Congress as well as those where the Opposition parties are in power. The Congress MLAs from the opposition-ruled states will participate in the meeting in which Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and Food Minister KV Thomas will also be present.

The July 27 meeting on Food security scheme comes a fortnight after the Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who is also the UPA Chairperson, asked Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states to expeditiously implement the food security scheme in letter and spirit. In the meeting with 13 Congress Chief Ministers on Saturday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said bottlenecks, if any, in the implementation of the scheme will be removed. The aim of that meeting was to ensure that the pro-poor Food Security scheme is implemented in the best possible manner with Congress-ruled states becoming role models in implementation of the food security measure.

Ahead of the July 27 meeting, Rahul Gandhi will inaugurate a three-day workshop at the party headquarters, starting July 21, for a fresh batch of 150-odd party spokespersons from the States. The aim is to work towards a better relationship, better coordination between the party’s central unit and the States, and ensure synergy between what is being said in Delhi and in the State capitals. Apart from videoconferencing and deploying the latest technological tools to ensure unity of voices, on days the Congress has a briefing in Delhi at 4.15 p.m., the text of the spokesperson’s press conference would be in the hands of all State spokespersons by 6 p.m.

On July 27, when Rahul Gandhi addresses PCC chiefs of all States, whether ruled by the Congress or not, as well as the Congress Legislature Party leaders of non-Congress-ruled States, he will impress upon them the need to keep up the pressure on the Chief Ministers to implement the food security programme expeditiously, explain its significance to the people at large, and stress that the bulk of the subsidy comes from the Centre.

For instance, if the current central subsidy for rice is Rs 18 per kg, rice that costs Rs. 23 a kg is being given to the States at Rs 5. So a State that supplies it at Re 1 a kg, for instance, is providing only a subsidy of Rs. 4 per kg. Now, of course, the central subsidy will increase further.

While Congress-ruled Delhi has announced its decision to implement the scheme from August 20, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had said in the meeting that he was also ready to roll out the scheme from the same day.