Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi on Tuesday directed the district Collectors and Food Supply and Consumers Welfare Department officials to expedite the process of identification of beneficiaries under the State food security scheme to be implemented in the State from October 2. Through video conferencing from the State Secretariat, Padhi directed the officials to speed up the receipt of applications from the beneficiaries, field-level inspection and digitisation process and upload the progress report on the website on a daily basis. He further directed the officials to complete the inspection of applications received till September 2 and prepare the ration cards so that the cards would be distributed to the beneficiaries before October 2.
He further asked the Collectors to accept the State food security applications till September 10.
Notably, the State Government has launched its own food security scheme to include those left out of the National Food Security Act due to various reasons. The Government has decided to include about 25 lakh beneficiaries under the scheme in the first phase and would bear all the expenses for providing food grains to the beneficiaries in subsidised rate under the scheme.
As the State food security scheme is on the top of the priority list of the State Government, Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan advised the field-level officials to complete the identification process within the stipulated timeframe. Food Supplies and Consumers Welfare Secretary Vir Vikram Yadav presented the district-wise data for discussion and advised the Collectors on the issue.