The government will soon take a call on extending the September 30 deadline for implementation of the National Food Security Act as most States are not yet ready to roll out the programme.
Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat and Kerala on Tuesday sought over a year to implement the Act while U.P. asked for six months.
At a meeting of State Food and Consumer Affairs Ministers convened by the Centre here, the Tamil Nadu representative said the State has a universal public distribution system and limiting priority beneficiaries under the NFSA will “open a Pandora’s box.”
“We need one-and-a-half to two years,” he said as Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan specifically asked each and every State about the rollout of the programme.
Bihar protested the number of beneficiaries fixed for the State under the Food Security Act and said over one crore poor had been left out making it difficult to identify beneficiaries.
Floods affect work J&K sought at least a year as it was still reeling under the impact of the floods that wreaked havoc in the State last year.
The Gujarat representative said the State government was planning to connect PDS beneficiary data, NREGA card holders and Socio-Economic Caste Census statistics for which it required at least a year. The Kerala official also sought a year as it was having problems with computerisation.
U.P. said it will get into the process after the panchayat polls in October-November.
