Is food bill an electoral card for UPA?

New Delhi, July 13: In a meeting with all the state chiefs, Sonia Gandhi made it very clear that the party's scheme on the Food Security Bill be implemented without fail, especially in all the Congress-ruled states.

UPA, however, justifies that the ordinances have been brought because it would take at least 3 months for the government to implement the scheme.

But is three months enough? Experts say no, given the state the country's infrastructure. "Reaping the benefits of the ordinance would be very difficult as we do not have the proper infrastructural base in the country," said an expert. The scheme of providing cheap food grains to 82 crore people is allegedly a game-changing plan for the UPA during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, think many.

Strategically, Delhi will be the first state to roll out the scheme on August 20 (the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi) as the Assembly elections are due to be held at the year-end here.

34 party leaders, including chief ministers of 14 Congress-ruled states, AICC general secretaries, and other members of Congress Core Group, have been invited for the meeting. The meeting wil be held in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Food Minister KV Thomas.

The food bill, along with the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), is considered a pet project of Sonia Gandhi, just like the farmers' loan waiver scheme and MNREGA that acted as a trump card for UPA-1 in 2009.

OneIndia News