Union Minister for Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan on Sunday slammed the Nitish Kumar government for poor delivery of subsidised food meant for the poor under the National Food Security Act. He said the utilisation certificate from the State government was still awaited for the release of more funds for the purpose.
After holding an open discussion under the Khadya Suraksha Panchayat with all stakeholders on implementation of the Act, the Union Minister alleged that despite being asked to implement the NFSA effectively, the Bihar government had not issued fresh ration cards to many of the beneficiaries.
“A number of communications has been sent to the State government but still a large number of eligible beneficiaries are not getting their food quota due to the poor delivery mechanism,” alleged Mr. Paswan.
Giving figures, Mr. Paswan said out of the 8.71 crore beneficiaries in Bihar (85 per cent in rural areas and 74 per cent in urban area) under the Food Security Act, about 1.11 crore people have not been issued fresh ration cards .
The Union Minister said the National Informatics Centre (NIC) had urged the State government to upload the details of the remaining beneficiaries on the PDS portal but the latter’s response was still awaited.
Bihar had reported 49.74 lakh additional beneficiaries but they would get subsidised food grains under the Act only after their details are uploaded on the PDS portal, the Minister said.
According to Central government’s data, about 8.71 crore people have been covered as beneficiaries in Bihar under the NFSA. And on the receipt of data of about 7.61 crore beneficiaries from the State, about 4.1 lakh tonnes food grains are being provided by the Centre every month which comes to 49 lakh tonnes annually.
Mr. Paswan said his ministry was keen on making the Public Distribution System more transparent in Bihar and a financial assistance of Rs. 17.89 crore was provided to the State in 2013-2014 for the purpose.
Meanwhile, State Food and Consumer Protection Minister Shyam Rajak dismissed all the charges made by the Union Minister. He said the State government had uploaded the list of all beneficiaries on the NIC portal, adding, “Bihar is the only State to have done this. ”
“It is unfortunate that such a meeting on such a crucial issue is being held without taking the State government into confidence. It is all for a political reason,” said Mr. Rajak and asked the Union Minister to first strengthen the areas of food security and public distribution that come under his domain.
He charged the Union government with not cooperating with the State government on the issue.