Maharashtra to become the 8th state to implement National Food Security Act ; to benefit 7 crore people

The Food Security Act covers nearly 7 crore beneficiaries in Maharashtra.  The NFSA is already being implemented in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka. Uttarakhand and the Union Territory of Chandigarh are likely to join in soon.

The salient features of the National Food Security Act are as under :

(1) Right to food: i.e. two-third of the population become legally entitled to receive highly subsidized food grains;

(2) each entitled person will receive 5 kg of food grains per month (i.e. rice at Rs 3, wheat at Rs 2 or coarse grains at Re.1 )

(3) the poorest of the poor who have been getting 35 kg of food grains, will continue to get 35 kg food grains per household per month under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana

(4) pregnant women and children below 14 years of age will get nutritious meals, with higher nutritional norms for malnourished children.

(5) pregnant women and lactating mother will get maternity benefit of Rs. 6000/-,

(6) Increased role for Panchayati Raj institutions and women’s self help group in programme-monitoring and social auditing;

(7) Establishment of internal grievance redressal mechanism including call centres and help lines

(8) District Grievance Redressal Officers and State Food Commission for expeditious and effective redressal of grievances.

The Centre had convened a meeting of state food ministers in October 2013 to discuss modalities relating to implementation of the Food Security Act. Main topics of discussion included – criteria to be adopted for inclusion and actual identification of beneficiaries by the States. Issue of fresh ration cards, women empowerment under the Act, doorstep delivery of foodgrains, setting up of Grievance Redressal Machinery at district and state levels, computersation of Targeted Public Distribution System, creation of scientific storage capacity at various level for timely delivery of foodgrains and opening of new Fair Price Shops wherever required.

 State governments asked to open more purchasing centres

Foodgrain requirement for the implementation of the bill is estimated 614.3 lakh tonnes as against the existing requirement of 563.7 lakh tonnes for Targeted Public Distribution System.  State Governments have been urged to open more purchasing centers and assess all necessary infrastructure requirements for increased procurement of foodgrains for implementation of Food Security Act. It should include storage space, credit and staff requirement.

For modernisation of the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) including ensuring that foodgrains reach the intended beneficiaries, Centre has approved Component-I of Plan Scheme for End-to-end Computerization of TPDS Operations. Component-I of the scheme comprises activities, namely, digitization of ration card/beneficiary and other databases, computerization of supply-chain management, setting up of transparency portal and grievance redressal mechanisms. The total outlay for the programme is Rs 884.07 crores. The cost sharing between Centre and States would be on 90:10 basis for North-Eastern States, whereas for other States/UTs, costs will be shared on 50:50 basis.

Under the National Food Security Act, the Centre will provide assistance to States in meeting the expenditure incurred by them on transportation of foodgrains within the State, its handling and FPS dealers’ margin as per norms to be devised for this purpose.

Procurement operations will be further extended and more farmers will get the benefits of MSP operations.  Farmers will get more for their produce i.e. Rs.12.85 per kg for wheat and Rs.12.50 per kg for paddy as minimum support price. .

Allocation of Food grains (wheat and rice) for major states during 2013-14

(In thousand tonnes)

 PIB Mum/ MD