Centre may not extend deadline to implement food law

The government is unlikely to provide more time to states and union territories (UTs) for implementing the landmark National Food Security law after the deadline expires this month.

The food law was passed by Parliament in 2013 and the state governments were given one year time to roll out the scheme. Since then, the deadline has been extended thrice with the latest one ending on September 30.

So far, only 13 states and UTs have implemented the food law, which aims at providing a legal entitlement to 5 kg of subsidised foodgrains per person every month at Rs 1-3 kg to two-thirds of India's population.

"We are thinking of not extending the deadline further because we have given sufficient time of two-and-a-half years to states/UTs for implementation of the food law," a senior Food Ministry official said.

Around 23 states/UTs have not yet implemented the food law despite warning that the Centre will stop allocation of additional foodgrains to APL and BPL families under the public distribution system (PDS) to those states which fail to implement the law.

The Centre has allocated additional foodgrains to BPL and APL category for first six months of this year and is yet to take a call whether to allocate 30 lakh tonnes of additional rice and wheat for remaining six months.

The official said big states like Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Assam have not yet shown interest, while some states/ UTs have submitted the dates for rolling out the law.

Jharkhand has said it would roll out the food law on October 1, while Andhra Pradesh will implement it in December and Kerala in March next year. Chandigarh has decided to launch direct cash transfer of food subsidy from September 14.

According to experts, the delay in implementation of food law in some states has been mainly due to problems related to identification of key beneficiaries. States are finding difficult to exclude some beneficiaries to include the most vulnerable section.

As things stand, 13 states and UTs have rolled out the Food law, of which Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Rajasthan have implemented it fully, while Bihar, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Chandigarh have done so partially.

At present, the Centre is allocating foodgrains to 13 states/UTs as per the new food law, while the rest are getting foodgrains quota as per earlier PDS norms.