Strongly opposing the wheat “dumping” on a rice-consuming State like Odisha, the ruling BJD MLAs on Tuesday sought President Pranab Mukherjee’s intervention to ensure that the rights of poor beneficiaries and tribal people under the National Food Security Act, 2013, are protected.
“We are forced to knock at the President’s door as the Centre has ignored the State government’s demand,” said Panchayati Raj Minister Arun Kumar Sahoo.
The ruling party MLAs, including the Ministers, on Tuesday walked down to Raj Bhavan in a rally and submitted a memorandum addressed to the President.
Besides the Minister of the department concerned and the State Chief Secretary, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also approached the Centre requesting them not to “dump” excess wheat on the people of Odisha, he said.
“Although, the Government of India is insisting for the implementation of the NFSA on one hand, on the other hand it is imposing unfair and unjust allocation of food grains to this State. With 24 per cent of the tribal population, the State government may not be able to ensure food security as per the needs of the poor people of Odisha,” the memorandum said.
Choice to beneficiaries
While identifying the beneficiaries under the NFSA, the State government provided a choice to beneficiaries to select the combination of five kg of food grains basket (five kg rice or four kg rice and one kg wheat... to one kg rice and four to five kg wheat).
Rice-wheat ratio
All beneficiaries under the NFSA had indicated their choice and after collecting the information and that of Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) beneficiaries, it was found that the rice wheat ratio was 85.82:14.18 for all the NFSA beneficiaries, the memorandum said.
Under the AAY, which has been continuing under the NFSA, all beneficiaries were being provided 35 kg rice in Odisha prior to the NFSA. So it was decided by the State government to provide them 35 kg of rice if they were otherwise eligible under the NFSA.
But, the Centre was also making wheat allocation for them, the BJD MLAs said.
Notwithstanding the people’s food choice, the Centre has been allocating rice and wheat at the ratio of 78.83:21.17 on the ground, which was the ratio of allocation and lifting prior to the NFSA implementation.
“But the reality is, in the last three-and-a-half-years since April 2012, the ratio of lifting of rice and wheat has been 85:15 at 70.60 lakh tons of rice and 12.41 lakh tons of wheat by Odisha,” they pointed out. As the people of Odisha prefer rice than wheat, the ruling party demanded that the Centre not dump wheat on the State. - PTI
