The CPI(M) on Thursday urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to take initiative to cover all the families in the State under the National Food Security Act, 2013.
In a letter to the Chief Minister, CPI(M) State Secretary Janardan Pati said, “The previous UPA Government had enacted the National Food Security Act in order to provide food to the people of the country. Now, the Central Government has fixed a ceiling of beneficiaries for Odisha at 77.8 per cent of the total population, of which 82.17 per cent are in rural areas and 55.77 per cent in urban areas.”
Further, the letter stated, “The circular issued by your Government to identify the beneficiaries is totally baseless. The nine point criteria chosen by the taskforce headed by the Development Commissioner will eliminate a large number of families, besides those who are already out of the earlier beneficiary list.”