Food grains for NFSA beneficiaries from today

Bhubaneswar: The National Food Security Act (NFSA) will be implemented in 14 districts of Odisha from today.

A total of 93 lakh 35 thousand people of 26 lakh 33 thousand families will be benefitted.

The 14 districts where the Act would be implemented are, Kandhamal, Angul, Sonepur, Bolangir, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Nuapada, Malkangiri, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Gajapati, Koraput, Boudh and Deogarh.

Food and Civil Supplies Secretary Madhusudan Padhi said the beneficiaries will be able to collect food grains from ration centres opened at the panchayat level. “The Food and Civil Supplies department has directed the district administration regarding this,” he added.

Earlier, there were allegations of irregularities in the preparation of the list of beneficiaries. At some places, applicants for the NFSA had staged protest.

Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, “In some panchayats, names of the poor people have been excluded from the list while the name affluent people are mentioned under NFSA. The government should not be in a hurry. It should make efforts to identity and include genuine beneficiaries .”

Reacting to the charges, BJD spokesperson Shashi Bhusan Behera said, “Action will be taken against non-eligible beneficiaries whose name appears in the list and taking benefits of the NFSA. Besides, eligible beneficiaries will have enough opportunity to get included in the list.”

Under the NFSA, each beneficiary will get five kg rice or wheat at Rs 3 and Rs 2, respectively.

At present, NFSA card distribution is going on in 16 districts of the State in the second phase.