Food Security Act in Odisha from September

Utkal Reporter Bureau
Bhubaneswar|27 Jan 2015

Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik, on Wednesday will begin the distribution programme of digital ration card under National Food Security Act from Bhubaneswar. 1.86 lac people in Bhubaneswar Municipality Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar Block have been identified as beneficiary under the scheme. The next phase of Registration will also start with this. There will be two more phases of the exercise to bring the entire state under NFSA. The process will be complete by July 15 as the NFSA is scheduled to be operational in OdIsha from September.
As per official count 3, 26, 41,800 people in Odisha will be provided with highly subsidized food grains under the ambitious NFSA. The central act has the provision to provide 78 percent of the rural and 56 percent of the urban population with of food security cover. 78 percent of the people of Odisha will be benefited under the scheme.
To avail of the benefit under the scheme a family needs to be qualified on the basis of 8 notified exclusion criteria. The qualified family will have to apply for a digital ration in a prescribed form that it would get after getting itself registered in its concerned panchayat and ward.
The NFSA came to exist on September 12 entitles the people with the right to food. Under the act a beneficiary will get 5kg of cereal a month per a member at a subsidized rate, rice at Rs3 a Kg and Wheat at Rs 2 a Kg.