Right to Food Act to promote inclusive growth: Finance minister

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the government will pass the Right to Food Act to promote inclusive growth, a concept that has been pursued by the Congress since independence.

"We are going to pass the Right to Food Act," the minister said while speaking at the Economic Times Award-2009 function here.

Pointing out that inclusive growth had always been on the agenda of the Congress, Mukherjee recalled that earlier, slogans like 'grow more food' and 'garibi hatao' were aimed at achieving the same objective.

The Congress, in its manifesto for 2009 general elections, promised to enact Right to Food Law to provide 25 kg of rice or wheat at Rs3 per kg every month to families living below poverty line.

The UPA government, he added, had passed the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and Right to Education Act to provide jobs and education to people through legislations.

The minister, however, emphasised that to make growth all encompassing, the country would have to produce more food, and industry, more manufactured goods.

Mukherjee said the rapid economic growth since liberalisation has led to rise in tax-GDP ratio. It was only because of the high ratio that former finance minister P Chidambaram managed to provide Rs71,000 crore debt relief to farmers.