Bhubaneswar: The state government Wednesday directed the district collectors to ensure inclusion of all eligible Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) beneficiaries in the National Food Security Act (NFSA) by the end of this month.
The government also instructed the collectors to ensure inclusion of those belonging to particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) in the programme at the earliest.
Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare secretary VV Yadav in a letter to all collectors has said that out of 12,64,500 AAY beneficiaries to be covered under NFSA scheme, 11,46,044 have been included so far.
“Expedite the coverage of AAY and complete the task of including remaining 1,18,456 AAY beneficiaries in the programme by January 31 this year,” the secretary said to the collectors. The coverage of AAY beneficiaries under NFSA stands at 90.6 per cent, he said.
He also directed the district administrations to expedite the process of including the PVTG members left out of the scheme at the earliest.
As per the provisions of the NFSA, the state government has included around 3.23crore individuals using the 2011 census data, which is 99.09 per cent of the upper ceiling fixed by the Centre for Orissa which is around 3.26crore.
Last year, the state government had requested the Centre to increase the ceiling limit. It had argued that the projected population figure of Orissa would be around 436.50 lakh. And as per NFSA norms, if 78 per cent of the projected population growth figure is taken, the upper ceiling for the state should increase to 340.49 lakh which is less by around 15 lakh against the ceiling of 326.41 lakh fixed by the Centre as per the 2011 census.
PNN
