In Noida, on every Saturday, I find a number of young men coming inside the residential complexes from the villages of Noida and ask for alms for Shani God. Will they not be part of the Food Security Bill and should they be? I feel the government must not take the responsibility of those healthy persons who go for such professions without making any effort to get themselves engaged. And how would have I reacted when I was told during one of my visit to Bihar that many dealt with the providers of NREGA on 50-50 sharing basis without working for even a minute? Why couldn’t India dig or repair thousands of ponds and water bodies for irrigation in draught prone areas with such a large expenditure on the scheme?

As against those Shani exploiters, Hari and many like him in Noida wash clothes, clean cars, supply newspapers or flowers, deliver grocery items to earn their living. A large number of women work as household maids on part time basis and earn or supplement household earnings. The food security bill must take care of these persons. Any system must encourage persons to work harder to live a better life. Unfortunately, I have found that most of such persons don’t get ration through PDS because the system of getting ration cards is cumbersome and requires bribing.

There must be a clear difference between destitute or physically disabled and those who are able bodied but don’t want to work. The nation must take care of the destitute but must not do anything that encourages its citizens to get enrolled in that BPL group because of a corrupt system. The country has already a large numbers of scheme that can take care of the destitute and those who are working for their living but earning petty amount.

How can the number of such poor persons in the country be two third of the whole population for getting food security, when the same government talks of great development work done to bring down the poverty level in millions every year over the decades?

Can India afford to spend lakhs of crores on welfare schemes? Has not Sonia Gandhi’s welfare economics hurt the Indian economy enough with little result?

Before going for this new food security bill, the government must work on making all the existing welfare schemes effective so that there is no leaks before the existing entitlements reach the beneficiaries. I suggest five years holiday for getting any new scheme introduced.Whichsoever scheme hadn’t be implemented efficiently, must be discarded.

Unfortunately, all the social welfare schemes introduced by Sonia Gandhi bearing one or the other name of her family members are hardly effective, For example, MNREGA has hardly helped those for whom it was meant. It will be clear from figures of the percentage of the families that got the work and the average number of days in a year that they got it.

Why does Sonia Gandhi think that she is the only who can think about what is good for the nation? Is she or her sycophant advisors the most intelligent in this country of billion plus? According to Kiran Saw Mazumdar, India can’t afford Food Security Bill in present economic scenario. Arun Shourie advises to stop the food security bill. Even Yashwant Sinha calls the bill rediculous under the present economic condition of the country, even against the policy of his party.Sonia would have heard at least to what RBI opines.

Unfortunately, I do not expect Sonia Gandhi to rethink over pressing the bill, not because it, like the other schemes will bring an immediate relief for all Indians who need it, but sheerly because she thinks it may win her 2014 election. Should not the voters stop Sonia from killing the goose for getting the golden egg?

Let Sonia support and encourage all the states, at least the Congress ruled states to emulate Amma Canteen in Chennai started by Tamil Nadu government or the food security solution of Chhatisgarh.