The District Press Club organised a workshop on National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) on Wednesday at Khariar. The participants were working journalists, intellectuals, leaders of political parties and a few Government officials.
Attending as chief speaker Rajkishor Mishra spoke in detail about law and also the gaps in it. “The cap of 5 kg per capita per month will not be sufficient for a person. According to Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), a hard working person needs at least 12 kg cereals per month to meet the minimum calorie requirement which the NFSA does not fulfill,” said Mishra. He also discussed about various other lacunas of the Act, like its failure to address the issue of safe food and exclusion of food articles like pulses and sugar etc.
“My suggestion for the media persons is that they should write extensively on the impact of the Act on marginalized persons like people with disabilities and widow headed households,” added Mishra. The other participants too expressed their concern over the cap of 5 kg. “The average number of household per family in our district is four. Thus each family will lose 5 kg of food grain per month on an average after the implementation of the Act,” said Adhiraj Panigrahi of Congress and Sanjay Tiwary of BJD. The participants questioned the basis of fixing the cap.
“It is very whimsical and violation of the basic principles of the constitution. All the same, it is a good beginning, because people have now the right to go to the court of law in case of violation,” said Khariar Autonomous College principal Fanindam Deo. Among others, Prof Ramachandra Mishra, Samarjit Patra of BJP, Sunil Sahu of Congress, Padmanav Patra, Udit Panda, Denis Roy, Parameswar Barik, Motilal Bag, Hemanta Behera, Sushil Kumbhar, Saroj Nag, Samir Hota and Prabhudatta Joshi spoke.