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Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to share the database of National Population Register (NPR) with the Odisha government for implementation of National Food Security Act, 2013 in the state.
Keeping in view the large inclusion and exclusion errors in the existing ration cards, the state government decided to digitise the beneficiaries on the basis of NPR. But due to non-availability of database, the digitisation work is not progressing.
“My government has signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with the Registrar General of India (RGI) for sharing the NPR database in March 2013. But till date, we have received NPR data of only one out of thirty districts”, Patnaik said in the letter to the Prime Minister.
“RGI has been requested on several occasions to share the digitised NPR database of the remaining 29 districts of Odisha. The matter has also been taken up with Union Home secretary and Union Home minister. I would request you to intervene in the matter immediately for enabling Odisha to implement the National Food Security Act, 2013 at an early date”, the letter added.
Recently, the state government gave its nod to the eight exclusion criteria considered as important factors for identification of beneficiaries.
The eight exclusion criteria covers monthly income, income tax payee, persons having four wheelers or two/three wheelers, business with TIN (tax payer identification number), electric consumption above 300 units, state government or central government job, persons having tractors, power-tillers, fishing boats or other heavy vehicles, persons having entrepreneurship and professional tax payees.
The eight exclusion criteria have been fixed on the basis of socio-economic status schedule prepared by panchayati raj department. The exclusion will have simultaneous effect of automatic inclusion of persons like beggars, destitute, pension holder widows, particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PTGs) and persons having disabilities of 40 per cent or above.
In urban areas, beggars, rag-pickers, domestic workers, street vendors, construction workers, home-based workers and rickshaw pullers among others will be included in the process.
