Minister of Food Supply and Consumer Welfare Surjya Narayan Patro has said that the State Government has started a process to identify the people left out from the National Food Security Act (NFSA) so that they could be included in the State Food Security Scheme (SFSS).
Patro said that 25 lakh needy, poor and eligible people who have been left out from the NFSA would be covered under the SFSS.
Identification of the left-out beneficiaries is underway and the department would receive applications in this regard till September 3.
The applications would be scrutinised and a draft beneficiary list would be published on September 13, he said. Objections would be received from the people which would be looked into in a stipulated time and a final beneficiary list would be out by September 20, Patro informed.
And each beneficiary listed in the final list would be provided five kg of rice per month a the rate of Rs 1 a kg from October 2, he said.
Earlier State Cabinet had approved the State Food Security Scheme, which would come into effect from October 2. Patro said that efforts are on to include 25 lakh beneficiaries left out of the NFSA in the first phase and later to include all the eligible people like poor, old, disable and others.
He, however, said if the number of the applications exceeds 25 lakh, arrangements would be made for their inclusion in the State Food Security Scheme in a later stage.
The Minister said the aspiring beneficiaries are getting enrolled in the State scheme in different gram panchayats, blocks, NACs and municipalities.
A sum of Rs 220 crore would be spent on implementation of the State's own food security programme during next six months from October 2, 2018 to March 31, 2019.