Shedding its three-year-long reservations over the National Food Security Act (NFSA), the Tamil Nadu government on Thursday announced that it would implement the Act, effective November 1.
There will be no change in the government’s policy of universal public distribution system.
Also, the scheme of free distribution of rice to about 1.92 crore rice-drawing family (ration) cards will continue.
A government order to this effect was issued by Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao, after getting the consent of the Election Commission.
Thanks to the government’s latest move to implement the NFSA, there will be no ceiling on the entitlement of rice as the law mandates that each person be given 5 kg a month.
At present, the maximum rice entitlement per card is 20 kg a month. Besides, each child is being given 2 kg a month and each adult, 4 kg a month.
But after the introduction of the Act, all beneficiaries, irrespective of age, are entitled to 5 kg every month. The government has also decided to keep the minimum rice entitlement at 12 kg a month even if a card has only one beneficiary, though the entitlement per person under the NFSA is only 5 kg. If there are five persons in a family, the monthly entitlement will be 25 kg.
