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• What is the Definition of Poor?

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Timeline of the Bill

• July 2011: A ministerial panel approved the draft food security

law that aims to give cheap grains to the majority of the

population.

• Dec. 18, 2011: India’s Cabinet approves a draft of the food

security law.

• Dec. 22, 2011: The draft food security law is presented in the

lower house of Parliament.

• Nov. 2012: A Parliamentary panel sends the draft of the food

security law back to the food ministry to incorporate changesafter consulting state governments.

• Mar. 19 2013: India’s Cabinet approves an amended draft of 

the food security before introducing it in Parliament for a

general debate.

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• May 2, 2013: India’s government introduces an amended foodsecurity bill in the lower house of Parliament, doing away with anearlier proposal for separate categories of beneficiaries in urban andrural areas.

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May 8, 2013: A general debate on food security law ends without avote by lawmakers as Parliament’s budget session concludes twodays ahead of schedule because of protests by opposition partiesagainst alleged government corruption and calls for the resignationof the Law Minister Ashwani Kumar over allegations he tweaked aCentral Bureau of Investigation report into irregularities in allocating

coal mining licenses. Mr. Kumar stepped down a few days later butdenied any wrongdoing.

• June 3, 2013: The Congress party and its allies were expected tothrash out a strategy of how to get its food bill into law at a meeting.But following an attack by Maoist insurgents on a Congress partyconvoy in Chhattisgarh the focus of the meeting changed to Maoist

insurgency and discussions about the food bill were punted into thefuture.

• June 4, 2013: The Cabinet defers talks on approving the foodsecurity law through an executive order also known as an ordinance,saying that the draft bill was not submitted by Food Minister K.V.Thomas on time.

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• June 13, 2013: After a Cabinet meeting, ministers decide to call

a special session of Parliament to vote on a food security law

once they have received assurances from opposition parties that

they will support the bill. However, these plans never

materialized.

• July 4, 2013: After passing up two opportunities to bring enact

the bill as a temporary law, India’s Cabinet approved the food aidprogram as an ordinance, similar to an executive order. This

temporary legislation was valid for six weeks from the start of 

the next session of Parliament, slated to begin Aug. 5.• Aug. 5, 2013: As the monsoon session of India’s Parliament

started, the bill is one of the key pieces of proposed legislation

for debate.

• The Bharatiya Janata Party, India’s main opposition party, said it

would not oppose the bill, but would propose certain changes tothe existing version.

• Aug. 26, 2013: In the fourth week of Parliament’s sitting, the bill

was passed in the Lok Sabha with a simple majority.

• Sept. 2, 2013: Rajya Sabha passes the Food Security Bill.