Introspect before opposing food ordinance: Cong
Monday, 08/07/2013
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130708/punjab.htm#4
Chandigarh : The Punjab Congress today urged Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur to introspect before terming the Right to Food Security ordinance as a “vote security ordinance” and accusing the UPA Government of being “anti-poor”.
In a statement here, Congress spokesman Sukhpal Khaira challenged Harsimrat for an open debate on the issue. He said the ordinance would provide subsidised ration to 67 per cent of India’s population and that by rejecting and opposing it, Harsimrat was “exposing her feudal mindset and double standards”.
Khaira said Harsimrat should analyse the performance of the SAD-BJP government on the social welfare front instead of calling the UPA Government’s initiative as anti-poor. He said currently, more than 80,000 ‘Shagun’ scheme applications (with arrears of Rs 122 crore) of Dalit girls were pending with the state government.
“Similarly, old age and widow pensions are often delayed for months before they reach the beneficiaries”. He said the state government had also failed to honour its manifesto commitments of doubling old age pension from Rs 250 per month to Rs 500 per month and increasing the ‘Shagun’ amount from Rs 15,000 to Rs 31,000.
Reacting to the charges, SAD spokesman Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema said he was “surprised over the statement considering the fact that the Congress had chosen the path of ordinance rather than debating the issue in Parliament”.
The SAD spokesman said the Congress had promised to bring in the food security bill in its election manifesto but did nothing till 2013. He said now with the Lok Sabha elections nearing, “the party had enacted a drama by bringing in this ordinance”. “The Congress party will have to tell the nation who stopped it from taking the decision for full nine years,” he asked.
