With Planning Commission’s decision to de-link entitlements for poor based on Suresh Tendulkar’s report casting uncertainty on beneficiaries of the proposed National Food Security Bill, Food Minister KV Thomas clarified that the Bill would not be re-opened for discussion and entitlements would be restricted to “priority” category only in the beginning. The statement assumes importance in the backdrop of Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh’s statement that the Bill was a work in progress and had to be discussed with States, seeking their full comments. The final Bill that the Cabinet approves will fix the numbers under priority and general category households, Ramesh had said during a joint statement with Plan panel’s deputy chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, on the BPL controversy. The Bill draft, which has been vetted by the Law ministry and sent to State Chief Ministers for their comments, says that in the first phase, only priority category would be given legal entitlements and the general category would be accommodated only after PDS reforms. The Bill gives legal entitlements to 75 per cent of the rural households of which 46 per cent figure in priority as well as 50 per cent urban households of which 28 per cent are priority. These numbers, which have been mainly derived using Tendulkar’s report, will be based on the socio-economic caste census currently being carried in the country by Rural Development ministry. The Bill proposes to give 7 kg of food grains per person a month to priority sector households comprising rice at `3 per kg, wheat at `2 per kg and coarse cereals at `1 per kg. The general-category households will get 3-4 kg of grains per person per month. The statement comes a few days after Thomas met UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday. Thomas had apprised her of the progress on the Bill during the meeting. The Bill is likely to be introduced in the Winter Session.