Haryana will start implementation of the National Food Security Ordinance on the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.
“We have already done the spadework and are fully prepared for implementation of the Ordinance”, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said on Wednesday.
Addressing a press conference here, Hooda said that the number of beneficiary families after implementation of the Ordinance would increase from 12 lakh to 27.84 lakh. On an average, one Fair Price Shop has 638 ration cards against the capacity of 1,200 to 1,300 ration cards. “Thus, the State has enough infrastructure to successfully implement the scheme”, the Chief Minister added.
Hooda said that a committee had been constituted under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary, P.K. Chaudhery, to work out modalities for inclusion of more beneficiaries under the scheme. The committee will submit its report within one week. Describing the National Food Security Ordinance as a historical decision of the UPA Government, the chief minister said, “The decision on food ordinance taken for the welfare of the poor would be written in golden letters in the history of the country”.
Hooda said that there were 54.41 lakh beneficiaries under AAY, BPl and State BPl, constituting 21.42 per cent of the total population of the state. Under the new scheme, the number of such beneficiaries would increase to 130.86 lakh, constituting 51.6 per cent of the total population of the state.
However, he said that the number of additional beneficiaries under the scheme would go up to 76.45 lakh constituting 30.18 per cent of the total population.
Property tax to be recovered after report
Haryana Government has decided not to recover property tax till the time the committee constituted under the Chairmanship of Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Randeep Singh Surjewala to rationalise the property tax submits its report. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that this decision has been taken in view of several representations made by people regarding rationalisation of property tax. He said that the committee would submit its report within a month’s period. However, some people had already deposited the amount of property tax. If they had made excess payment the same would be adjusted in future, he added. He said that the committee has been constituted under Surjewala to rationalise the property tax on both residential and commercial properties situated in various municipal areas of the State. The other members of the Committee are MlAs B.B. Batra and Savitri Jindal.