While the Centre is yet to frame the rules of the Food Security Act, the West Bengal government is providing food security to all its tribal people, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said here on Monday.
“The Centre has not been able to implement a proper law for food security...there is no decision from where funding will come...but in West Bengal we have provided rice to 3.2 crore people at Rs. 2 per kg,” she said at an event in the city organised to commemorate the Santhal uprising of 1855.
Ms. Banerjee said irrespective of the below poverty line (BPL) list, the State government had announced that all tribals would get subsidised food grains.
The remarks made by the Chief Minister are significant as it come after Union Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan rejected the Bengal government’s plea to extend by six months the deadline for implementing the act, and said the scheme would have to be implemented in three months.
Meanwhile, Ms. Banerjee lauded the government schemes directed at tribals and said that ‘tribal bhavans’ would be set up in all districts, including the city.
The Chief Minister said by 2014-15, the State government would implement reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) in higher education.
Medical seatsDisclosing that the Medical Council of India ( MCI) had cancelled 1,000 medical seats in Bengal, the Chief Minister said the State government had succeeded in getting 400 seats back
“We will get back the rest,” she said at an official function here. The MCI had cancelled the seats citing lack of infrastructure in medical colleges. The Chief Minister said the State government was in the process of setting up three new medical colleges.
