Govt not to make amendments to Food Security Act

The government has taken a decision to not make any amendments in the Food Security Act, as suggested by the High Level Committee (HLC) on restructuring of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), Parliament was informed on Friday. The Shanta Kumar-led committee has recommended that the implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the states that have not done end-to-end computerisation be deferred.

It has also suggested reducing the coverage under the Act from 67 per cent of the population to 40 per cent and to raise allocation to priority households from 5 kg to 7 kg per person per month.

Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Food Raosaheb Patil Danve said, “The NFSA Act is already in force and the government has decided not to make any amendments to the Act.” He said another recommendation of direct transfer of subsidy is being discussed in various fora.

“Its implementation, however, depends upon readiness of states/UTs in terms of digitisation and de-duplication of the beneficiary data base seeds with bank account numbers and it can be taken up on specific requests from states/UTs,” he added.