new delhi the upa can face a political alignment against the national food security bill similar to what it did on the national counter terrorism centre nctc major states are opposed to provisions of the bill that seek to mandate who are the beneficiaries of the proposed law j jayalalithaa in tamil nadu nitish kumar in bihar and most worryingly for upa mamata banerjee in west bengal have all opposed the centres view that it would decide the number of beneficiaries under the food security scheme in each state based on a standard formula some like tamil nadu argue that the number of beneficiaries will decrease their opposition needs to be softened although congress got a breather with ncp boss sharad pawar making a near uturn and speaking in favour of the bill he has questioned for more than a year this year we will break last years record by reaching 250 million tonnes of foodgrains with this background to implement the food security bill i dont see any problem the agriculture minister said he had previously warned of problems that could arise in implementing the bill and his ministry agriculture had on several occasions warned that there were not enough foodgrains to meet projected demands congresss worries would now be concerned on convincing banerjee to support the bill the west bengal cm avoided meeting union food minister k v thomas during his twoday visit to kolkota the trinamool congress chief had earlier in a written submission to the union government opposed key proposals in the bill currently being considered by a parliamentary standing committee the current bill proposes that the centre decide the total number of beneficiaries in each state by sifting people out on the basis of the socioeconomic caste census currently underway banerjee along with jayalalithaa and kumar have opposed this particular provision besides others reiterating that it should be the prerogative of the state governments to decide and select beneficiaries kumar is insistent that states below poverty line lists should be given due weightage and they be allowed a say in beneficiaries several states already run a more elaborate food security scheme and it would be a political disaster for the regional leaders to cut access to those enjoying the benefits while the bill itself is before the parliamentary standing committee the criteria to be used for demarcating the beneficiaries is yet to be decided by the centre a panel headed by planning commission member abhijit sen was to do so but it has not met once since its formation a few months ago the survey too has been delayed in several states all these issues could hamper a timely roll out of congresss flagship scheme and a pet project of congress chief sonia gandhi