Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Dec 18: The state government has urged the Union government to extend till August 2015 the deadlines set to stop supply of subsidised foodgrain to APL families till the completion of identification of beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA)-2013 in the state.
The ministry of consumer affairs (MoCA), food and supply distribution has decided o stop the supply of subsidised foodgrain to APL families from April 5, 2015, if the state has not implemented NFSA by April 1, 2015, according to sources. The decision was taken at a meeting of food secretaries.
“The identification of beneficiaries is taking place after 22 years. NFSA 2013 can be implemented only after the digitized database of beneficiaries is placed in the public domain. In view of this, we would request you to relax the decision taken in the last meeting of food secretaries to stop supply of subsidised foodgrain to APL families from April 5,” food supply and consumer welfare secretary Madhusudan Padhi wrote to MoCA secretary Sudhir Kumar.
Padhi said that the decision is contradictory to Section 10 (1-b) of the NFSA-2013, which says “the state shall continue to receive the allocation of foodgrain from the central government under the existing targeted public distribution system till the identification of such households is complete.”
The state has 35.66 lakh APL families of which 5.27 lakh are in the Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi (KBK) region. Any decision to stop providing subsidized foodgrain for APL families would impact their food security directly, the secretary wrote.
In the pilot phase, the state government is implementing the ambitious scheme of the Union government in Bhubaneswar Municipally Corporation (BMC) area and Bhubaneswar block. The state has chalked out blueprint to complete the process of digitisation of beneficiaries by August 2015.
After the pilot phase, the government has decided to roll out the scheme to all other parts of the state in the second phase. Earlier, the state government had decided to implement it on the three-phase identification of beneficiaries.