Food Act across India by March 2016, says Paswan

Food Minister Ramvilas Paswan on Monday said all states and Union territories, barring Tamil Nadu, will come under the National Food Security Act by March 2016. Addressing senior officials of state food departments, Paswan said 22 states and UTs had rolled out the law while 14 were doing so. Once all have done it, the country would come under the ambit of the food law.

The law was passed by Parliament in 2013 and state governments were given a year to implement the scheme. Since then, the deadline had been extended thrice, with the latest one ending in September. The state governments have to mandatorily undertake digitisation of ration cards and computerisation of their public distribution system operations before being eligible for cheap grains under the National Food Security Act. The food law provides legal entitlement to five kg of subsidised foodgrain per person every month at Rs 1-3 kg. The law covers two-thirds of the population.

"Except for Tamil Nadu, all other states have said they will implement the food law by the end of March 2016," Paswan said.

At the meeting, a Tamil Nadu government official said it can implement the law in July 2016 as it was implementing a universal public distribution system.

Of the 14 states that have not implemented the food law, the minister said Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim have said they would implement it in December. Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya, Jammu & Kashmir and Andaman & Nicobar would roll it out in January 2016. Gujarat, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland would do so by March, he added.

On direct cash transfer of food subsidy, Paswan said, "We are implementing it on a pilot basis in Pondicherry and Chandigarh. It is not mandatory for states to implement the direct benefits transfer (DBT). It is optional for states if they want to give cash subsidy in some parts of the state."

Addressing concerns of some states on direct cash subsidy issue, Food Secretary Vrinda Swarup said: "We are not forcing states to go for DBT. If they want to implement at urban centres, they have that option."

However, she made it clear that it was mandatory for the states to install e-point of sale (PoS) machines backed with Aadhar identification to ensure subsidised grains reached the beneficiary concerned.

Till now, e-PoS machines have been installed at over 51,000 ratio.