20,000 more forms issued before NFSA rolled out in Meghalaya

The Meghalaya Government today said it has issued an additional 20,000 forms to fair price shops across the state to ensure that no one is left out of the National Food Security scheme slated to be rolled at the end of this month.
"Over 20,000 new forms will be made available at fair price shops across the state to ensure that deserving beneficiaries of the National Food Security Scheme is not left out," a senior Food and Civil Supply official told PTI.
He said the forms would be made available in a day or two and all those who felt left out or whose names were not in the list, but were deserving, would be given ample opportunity to stake their claims.

Earlier in the day, the influential Khasi Students' Union met with the East Khasi Hills district deputy commissioner seeking inclusion of deserving families in the NFSA scheme.
The KSU expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that many indigenous tribal families were left out of the scheme since the distribution of identity cards was based on the 2011 socio-economic census.
"We will soon write to the state government demanding a separate census to ensure that implementation of the NFSA in the state is not biased," KSU general secretary Auguster Jyrwa said.

In the absence of a separate census, several anomalies and discrepancies were detected in the implementation and distribution of the family identity cards under the scheme, he alleged.

Over 21 lakh people in the state were set to benefit from the NFSA in the state, Food and Civil Supplies minister Clement Marak had said.
The allocation of food grains from the Centre has already been received and the implementation of the scheme was to be finalised to ensure all beneficiaries enlisted, get the scheme, he said.
Over 21 lakh persons across the state would get subsidised rice and wheat at Rs three and Rs two per kg for five kgs, according to the government approved list.