The National Food Security Act, 2013

Our public distribution system has been severely criticized for its gaping lacunae. To fill in these gaps, a new Act was originally conceived by the National Advisory Council headed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who on 27 October, 2010, forwarded the basic framework of the proposed National Food Security Bill (NFSB) to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Bill envisaged covering 75 per cent of the country’s population, 90 per cent in rural areas and 50 per cent in urban areas. The National Food Security Bill followed from the National Food Security Ordinance, 2013 that was promulgated by the government on July 5. After being introduced in both Houses of Parliament, it was passed in August 2013. Under the new law those beneficiaries would be provided rice at Rs 3/kg, wheat for Rs 2/kg and jowar for Rs1/kg.