New Delhi, July 9
All set to hard sell the National Food Security Ordinance-2013 as the “mother of all schemes” ahead of the general election, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has convened a crucial meeting of all Congress chief ministers and top party leadership on July 13 to take the move to the people.

The announcement comes a day after Food Minister KV Thomas, under instruction from the UPA chief, briefed Congress spokespersons on the intricacies of the Bill being seen as a potential vote-catcher for the party mired in allegations of corruption.

The meeting, to be held at Sonia’s residence, will be attended by 34 leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Thomas, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Congress chief ministers, party general secretaries and core group members.

The ordinance will first be rolled out in Delhi with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit volunteering to do so at a meeting with Thomas today.

She also proposed the date for the rollout - August 20, the birth anniversary of former PM Rajiv Gandhi. The party hopes to cash in on the announcement in the forthcoming Delhi Assembly elections.

While the party prepares to build the ordinance as a potential weapon to counter the corruption taint ahead of the Lok Sabha election, the moot question is whether the implementation of the ordinance is economically possible.

The estimated spending this fiscal for the promised right to food will be around Rs 90,000 crore. The annual expenditure estimated for the implementation of the scheme will be around Rs 1.24 lakh crore, a spending that has the potential to raise the fiscal deficit.

But the Congress leadership is adamant that the ordinance is a necessity and money will have to be set aside for it. “Who is this scheme for? It is for the people. Money is not a consideration here. Welfare is. The Congress has always made election promises it knows it can fulfil on a social and economic level. Look at any of our manifestoes in the states or the Centre, we have always promised people what we can do. Now is the time to keep another such promise,” a party leader said.

The Congress had made the right-to-food promise in its 2009 election manifesto. The ordinance seeks to provide subsidised food grain to 67 per cent of the Indian population.

Around 81 crore people, including children, are meant to be covered. Many non-Congress ruled states such as Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are providing subsidised food grain to people through targeted public distribution system.

With the new ordinance, state-level entitlements will need to be subsumed by the Central law though states are free to give free food to population other than the 67 per cent mandated by the ordinance.