Bangalore: The proposed Food Security Bill by the Centre will only add to the existing food insecurity rather than improve access to food, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat has said.
Speaking at a mammoth rally organised by the Left parties here on Wednesday, he pointed out that the Bill had proposed giving rice or wheat at Rs. 3 a kg, while seven States in the country were already giving it at Rs. 2 a kg. He blamed the “Centre’s skewed policies” of allowing forward trading in essential commodities as the root cause of spiralling food prices.
The policies being pursued by the Centre were disastrous, he warned, even as agrarian crisis was deepening and food grain production plummeting.
The government had failed to see food as a fundamental human right even as India is home to the largest number of hungry and malnutrition people, he said. Hoping to sustain high growth even as price rise is eroding the lives of people was ridiculous, he added.
One of the principle demands put forth by the Left parties was universalising of the Public Distribution System.
Speaking on mining, Mr. Karat came down heavily on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for extending an invitation to foreign firms to invest in mining in India even as “illegal plundering and looting of mineral resources by India private companies” was on in full swing.
Mr. Karat said that the National Mineral and Mining Policy should be altered so that the mining sector was strictly regulated and ore used domestically. “Allowing short-term plunder” like at Bellary would exhaust all ore deposits within the next 30 years, he warned.
(courtesy : the hindu)
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