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New Delhi: The
much-awaited Lokpal and Food Security bills will be introduced in
the Lok Sabha Thursday.
The contentious Lokpal bill will be tabled in the Lok Sabha
Thursday and would be taken up for discussion Dec 27, when the
extended three-day sitting of parliament begins, Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani said Wednesday.
The winter session of parliament, which was to end Thursday, has
been extended. Both houses will reconvene Dec 27-29 to discuss the
crucial Lokpal bill.
"The house will be reconvened from Dec 27 to 29," Advani told
reporters after meeting Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha and
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee here.
The government is also to move the judicial accountability and
whistleblower protection bills during the extended sitting of
parliament.
The National Food Security Bill, which seeks to provide legal
entitlement of cheaper food grain to over half of India's 1.2
billion population, will also be tabled in parliament Thursday,
said Food Minister K.V. Thomas.
"We will introduce the food security bill tomorrow," Thomas told
reporters on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the
Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) here.
The union cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sunday
approved the bill, a pet project of Congress president Sonia
Gandhi-led National Advisory Council.
"This is the dream project of Madam Sonia Gandhi," Thomas said.
The bill promises 75 percent of rural population and 50 percent of
urban households the right to 7 kg food grain per person per
month, at Rs.3 per kg for rice, Rs.2 per kg for wheat and Re.1 per
kg for coarse grains to the priority beneficiaries.
The general category will be provided at least three kilograms of
food grain per person per month at half the minimum selling price.
It will also provide rations or cooked meals to children under 14
years of age, destitute, including women and persons on the
margins of society.
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