The Centre, at a meeting held in Delhi on Tuesday, gave its nod to the State Government’s proposal to roll out the much-awaited Food Security Act, thus paving the way for near universal grain coverage scheme for economically vulnerable sections in Jharkhand from September 25.
Minutes thereafter, the State Cabinet also decided to empower the local elected bodies — Gram Sabha, Panchayat Samiti, Zila Parisad or urban municipal bodies — to monitor the functioning of public distribution system in their respective jurisdiction.
Food and Civil Supplies Minister Saryu Roy told The Pioneer that in all the districts distribution work of digitised ration cards among beneficiary households was in its final stage. “Cards are being distributed at district level and the work has been taken up in a mission mode. All the ration cards have been distributed at district level though there may be some delay in reaching those at the lowest level,” said the Minister.
He added that total number of families targeted to be covered under the Act was originally 50,49,560 which has gone up to 51,70,159 in the light of latest survey conducted. “It is because some families have been divided further and thus their entries have been made as separate families. However, total number of beneficiaries remained below the target which is based on the total population of the State,” said Roy.
The Act vows to cover 86.4 per cent population in rural areas and 60.4 per cent in urban areas. With this formula, total 2,63,40,922 individuals ought to be given food grains at controlled prices. Instead final figure of digitised persons at the time of rollout of the scheme could reach only 2,33,40,832, or about 30 lakh less than the target set for the State.
“It is due to the survey in which some people have been left out due to various reasons. Yet we have scope for improvement and further additions could be made into the list even after rolling out the provisions of the Act in the State,” said Ravi Ranjan, Special Secretary of the Department Under the provisions of the Act, benefited Antyodya families would be given 35 kg food grains -- including rice at rate of Re1 per kg while at controlled rate to all eligible coming even from the Above Poverty line category.
An official of the Department mentioned that in case there were some backlogs in distributing the digitised ration cards among beneficiaries the task would be completed in a month time. “There may be some held-ups at village level. But we have time till one month of the implementation of the scheme when first ration would be distributed among the beneficiaries. Within that it would be ensured that all the cards are distributed. Addition of new names into the list against the target would be on,” said he.
Gram Sabhas would monitor and observe the PDS at village panchayat level to ensure door step delivery of food grains, verify about their unloading and recommend inclusion or exclusion of ration cards from the list.
Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary NN Pandey said that all the Block Supply Officers and District Supply Officers would be answerable to their respective local bodies, attend meetings relating to PDS, inform the members about any change in policy and follow the directions concerning ration distribution among the beneficiaries.
In another step to improve the functioning of the scheme, the Cabinet granted Rs 239.2 crore for fitting PDS shops with biometric handheld devises for food grain distribution. The electronic system would be rolled out on build-own-operate (BOO) basis at the shops. The fund allocated would also be used for making the shops fully computerised.