The National Food Security Act (NFSA) would be implemented in Odisha from November 1 instead of the earlier announced schedule of October 1, informed Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department Secretary Madhu Sudan Padhi here today.
Padhi said the programme would be come into operation in the State in two phases. While it would be implemented in 10 districts in the initial phase on November 1, it would be implemented in the rest of the districts later, he said.
Explaining the delay in implementation of the programme, Padhi said it is taking time to delete the names of lakhs of ineligible applicants who registered for inclusion under the Act. The process to exclude them is on, and till date the Names of 51 lakh ineligible applicants have been struck off from the list.
Earlier, Padhi had said that the NFSA would be implemented from October 1 after the list of eligible beneficiaries was notified in the last week of August.
Notably, many people who did not meet the eligibility criteria had registered their names for availing benefits under the NFSA while the Centre has allowed the State to provide benefits of the NFSA to 3.26 crore people of the State’s total population of 4.21 crore.
The State Government has, meanwhile, suspended about 60 of its employees, including 17 in Ganjam district alone, on the charges of violation of the NFSA norms. About 2.5 lakh employees have so far opted out of the NFSA list, official sources revealed.
Earlier, Padhi had said a total of 70 lakh ineligible beneficiaries are to be struck off the list. While 51 lakh names have been struck off from the list by August end, another 20 lakh names of ineligible beneficiaries would be struck out from the list soon.