Saturday, 26 September 2015 | PNS | Ranchi | in Ranchi
After failing to meet two deadlines and months of delay the Food Security Act (FSA) meant for near universal food-grain coverage for economically vulnerable sections has been rolled out in Jharkhand. Chief Minister Raghubar Das in the presence of Food and Civil Supplies Minister Saryu Roy launched the scheme on Friday.
The scheme would cover 51,70,159 total number of families and more specifically 2,33,40,832 people have been identified for getting rice at Re 1 per kg per head. As many as 37,37,609 people in the list are from Antyodaya.
"Originally we had about 33 lakh BPL and Antyodaya families. 16 lakh more families came from the lower strata of erstwhile APL category as priority category taking it to total 51.70 lakh families. Antyodaya families would get 35 kg of grain while priority family 5 kg of grain per head at the rate of Re 1 per kg," informed Ravi Ranjan, Special Secretary of the Department. The Act allows Jharkhand to insulate its 86.4 per cent population in rural areas and 60.4 per cent in urban areas from starvation.
"We are still 30 lakh less than the ceiling set for Jharkhand. The Department despite having several hiccups and starting late has worked hard to conduct survey, verify entries and prepare the list. It has been done manually and there may be some lacuna. Some names may have been left out but we have sufficient scope to accommodate more beneficiaries in the days to come," said Saryu Roy.
The Act came into force on July 5, 2013 but got delayed in the State due to various reasons. Earlier, the State Government had announced to implement it from July 1 with eight districts to start with but following the Centre's objection it was decided to roll out before October 1 throughout Jharkhand. Finally, after preparing data and collecting records of beneficiaries based on the socio-economic survey of 2011 it has been executed from September 25.
The feat is not mean for Jharkhand as the Governments of Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat and Kerala in a meeting the Ministry in July had sought over a year to implement the Act while Uttar Pradesh asked for six months. The States were lobbying hard on extending the September 30 deadline set for implementation of the NFS Act citing lack of preparedness back home.
Lauding the achievement of the Department on the occasion, the Chief Minister termed it another step in the direction of taking all along. "Today is the birth day of Deendayal Upadhayay, who first gave the mission of Antyodaya. which talks about the last man in the queue. Our target is to bring smile on the faces of the poor. Providing them grains would save them and their children from malnutrition. We are also working towards no-homeless goal and pension for all widows during 2016-17," added the CM.
He, at the same time, also stressed over the need to raise grain productivity in the State through widespread irrigational facilities so that the supply of rice or paddy for the scheme can be done from here only.
The Department besides, launching the scheme for all, has also worked hard to make it leakage proof. Host of measures such as Aadhaar seeding of ration cards, mobile number updates, biometric handheld devices for dealers, GPS fitted PDS special trucks, SMS alerts to dealers, people's representatives and consumers have been initiated to plug the holes.
"More space would be created as there are certain duplications in the entries made. We have achieved about 15 per cent Aadhaar seeding which would be completed by December to eliminate the duplications. Trucks carrying food grains for PDS shops would be marked clearly and fitted with GPS based alarm system. Its route would be fixed. Consumers also need not to visit the shop again and again but an SMS would go their mobiles about arrival of the grains. More perks would also be given to dealers," said the Minister, narrating some specifications of the scheme in the State under which wheat would also be given in future.
