Thomas tells states to speed food plan rollout

Food minister writes to all state governments to speed up the process of fixing criteria for identification of beneficiaries under the Bill

As the government gets ready to implement the National Food Security Bill, awaiting Parliament nod in its revised form, Food Minister K V  Thomas has written a letter to all states to speed the process of fixing the criteria for identification of beneficiaries and setting up of the grievance redressal mechanism and laying down the rules.

In the letter, Thomas has listed the tasks states need to do to make the provisions of the Bill a success. The revised Bill was tabled in Parliament this week and is set for discussion on Monday.

The Bill promises to provide five kg of rice, wheat or coarse cereals a month to each beneficiary at a subsidised rate of Rs 3 a kg for rice, Rs 2 a kg for wheat and Re 1 a kg for coarse cereals.

It will cover 67 per cent of the population, of which at least 75 per cent will be in rural areas and 50 per cent in urban.

The state-wise cut-offs would be based on Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC), while the beneficiaries in the cut-offs would be determined by the respective states. Officials said the rural development ministry had completed the SECC in all states, but the verification of the data is on, which will take a few months.

In its earlier form, the draft Bill covered 62 per cent of the population, of which 75 per cent was rural and 50 per cent urban.

Of this, 46 per cent in rural areas and 28 per cent in urban were categorised as ‘priority’. The category was similar to the below poverty line one.

After the Bill was introduced and referred to a standing committee of Parliament, a number of significant changes were incorporated in the Bill, which included merging the priority and general categories into one and also expanding the coverage of people from 62 per cent to 67 per cent.

The differential pricing, as suggested in the earlier version, was also altered and a uniform price and quantity were suggested, which was accepted by the food ministry.

The ministry presented the revised Bill in Parliament earlier this year, but could not get it passed due to pandemonium in both houses, following which an ordinance was promulgated by the government. Thereafter, in the current monsoon session of Parliament, the Ordinance has been withdrawn and the revised Bill again tabled for discussion.

Officials in the know said that Thomas in his letter to the state governments has also urged them to expedite the issuance of new ration cards as per the revised identification criteria and changes norms, computerization of PDS to check leakages, linking of ration cards to the ration shops and increasing the number of ration shops, creation of storage capacities and making the various provisions in the state Acts to facilitate the implementation of the Bill.

The central government has given the states six months time from the date of promulgation of the National Food Security Ordinance to make all the necessary arrangements for implementing different provisions of the Food Bill.