New Delhi, Dec 21: “Food for all” is the resolve of Congress President Sonia Gandhi for the New Year.
She said this to reporters after the meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) when asked about her plans and priorities for 2012.
At the CPP meeting, Gandhi said, “We must take the Food Security Bill to the people and make it a central part of our political campaigns”.
Noting that the Bill will be introduced in the current session, she said, “We must make it work because it will protect a huge number of our people from hunger and malnutrition.”
The Bill is “very much part of our far-reaching rights based approach to development”, Gandhi said, adding that she was aware that there are “still some concerns” but this is truly a landmark decision.
Gandhi thanked the Prime Minister, Finance Minister and “our colleagues in the government” for helping fulfil a key commitment made in the 2009 manifesto.
“You will recall that we had the Right to Information Act and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act passed in 2005 and the Right to Education Act in 2008,” she said.
Gandhi said the food security bill proposes fundamental reforms of the public distribution system.
