Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday condemned the Union government for according approval to the ordinance on food security and said it was “full of confusion and flaws” and one that was of no use to people.
She dubbed the ordinance a “National Food Insecurity Bill” in comparison to the prevailing universal public distribution system in Tamil Nadu.
Recalling how strongly she expressed her reservations on the draft Bill in December 2011 and on the Bill in December 2012 and June 2013, the Chief Minister, in a four-page-long statement, said that when the monsoon session of Parliament was about to begin in a couple of weeks, it was an undemocratic act to promulgate an ordinance. When the Union Cabinet, in its meeting last month, decided not to take the ordinance route but get the Bill passed through Parliament, the latest move of the Union Cabinet to approve the promulgation of the ordinance was a “deceitful drama,” the Chief Minister said.
Referring to the stipulation that two Houses of Parliament should approve the ordinance within six weeks of the commencement of Parliamentary session, Ms Jayalalithaa said the intention of the Congress-led coalition government at the Centre was to get the law approved without any amendment.
“It appears that if the ordinance does not get the nod of Parliament, the Congress government has planned to wriggle itself out by portraying the impression that those who are pointing out shortcomings are against the food security law.”
The move was an effort of the Congress-led coalition government to cover up scandals surrounding the Centre and anti-people measures of the government, the Chief Minister said, expressing the hope that this would be defeated comprehensively.
Reiterating her position for exempting Tamil Nadu from the ambit of the law, she said the public distribution system being implemented in the State had received an overwhelming response from the people and it was not discriminatory.
