Gujarat seeks extension of NFSA deadline

The Gujarat government has requested the Centre to extend the deadline for rolling out the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
"I have requested Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan to extend the deadline for rolling out NFSA till March 2016," state Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma told PTI today on phone after meeting Paswan in Delhi.
"The Gujarat government has urged the Centre to wait till identification of beneficiaries is completed," he said.
The employees and staff of the state government have been working day and night for completing the digitised beneficiary database. They have completed 25 per cent job, and as it requires minute details of the beneficiary, "it takes longer time and that is why we have requested the Centre to extend the deadline till March 2016," he said.

"Paswan has assured to consider our plea," he said.
Prior to this, Paswan had given six months' more time to the states for rolling out the NFSA. The deadline is to end in October.

The NFSA can be implemented only after the digitised beneficiary database is placed in public domain.
With the Ministry of Food setting October 2015 as the deadline for rolling out the National Food Security Act, many state governments, including Gujarat, have urged the Centre to wait till identification of beneficiaries is completed.
In the past, the Food Ministry had intimated all the states which have not implemented the NFSA about its decision to stop supply of food grains to above poverty line (APL) families at the expiry of deadline, which has been extended thrice so far.

The Gujarat government is in the process of identifying eligible priority households and the selection is based on the National Population Register (NPR) through a process of exclusion and auto-inclusion criteria.
The law aims at providing legal entitlement to 5 kg of subsidised food grains per person per month at Rs 1-3/kg to two-thirds of the country's population.
Chudasama, who attended the National Consultation Meeting of States/UTs of Food & Consumer Affairs chaired by Paswan in Delhi today, said the Gujarat government has taken adequate steps to keep prices and availability of essential food items under control. Therefore, food prices have been stable in the state for last one year.

The Food and Civil Supplies department has instructed all District Collectors to monitor hoarding and black marketing of food items and take stringent action against the defaulters, he said.