Odisha’s own Food Security Act from Gandhi Jayanti

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has decided to implement its own Food Security Act to cover nearly 34.44 lakh people who have been left out under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday announced that the Odisha Food Security Act will be launched on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti on October 2.

“Large numbers of poor people in the State have not been included under the NFSA since the Centre is implementing the scheme as per the 2011 Census. Despite repetitive approaches to add the 34.44 lakh left out beneficiaries, the Centre is yet to take a call on this,” said the Chief Minister.

The state government took the decision to implement the Odisha Food Security Act after the repeated request of the government to include the left out people in the NFSA turned down by the centre. The central government is now providing ration as per the 2011 Census.

Patnaik said that his government had been providing Rs 2 per kg rice since 2008. Following its successful implementation, the state government implemented Re 1 per kg rice scheme for the poor from 2013.

“As I had promised you in 2014 for enacting our own Food Security scheme, it will be implemented from October 2 (Gandhi Jayanti) this year as lots of our eligible beneficiaries have been deprived of the National Food Security Act,” the Chief Minister.

“I won’t allow a single poor person of our state to be deprived of the Food Security,” he added.