Uttarakhand to remove creamy layer from food security scheme

People with an annual income of more than Rs 5 lakh will not be entitled to the benefits of the food security scheme in Uttarakhand, a senior government official said here.

"Chief Minister Harish Rawat has categorically told us to remove all those people who have annual income of more than Rs 5 lakh from the benefits of the food security scheme," the official told Business Standard.

Out of the 12.5 million people in the state, only 2 million people will be affected under the new plan. The Centre, via the National Food Security Act, wanted Uttarakhand to cover 65.26 per cent of the rural population and 52.05 per cent urban population. The government is also working on a plan to digitise all the data of the beneficiaries under the food security scheme in order to weed out wrong beneficiaries. The scheme to remove high-income group is in contrast to the Atal Khadyan Yojna initiated by the previous government, which provided benefits to all the people of the state.