Bihar asked to meet all conditions of National Food Security Act

The Centre has asked the Bihar government to fulfill all conditions of National Food Security Act till December 31, failing which “action will be taken”, Union Minister for Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs, Ram Vilas Paswan said here today.

He also accused the Bihar government of submitting false affidavit claiming that all formalities of NFSA have been fulfilled in the state.

“The Centre has fixed the number of NFSA beneficiaries in Bihar at 8.71 crore, but Bihar has identified only 7.6 crore people till now. More than 1 crore are yet to be identified, leading to their deprivation in getting subsidised food grains at a rate of Rs 2 per kg for wheat and Rs 3 per kg for rice,” Paswan told mediapersons.

He said there were complaints from Bihar regarding irregularities in identifying beneficiaries under NFSA as well as providing ration cards to them and added that he had met Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi over the issues on June 27 in Patna and July 11 in New Delhi, but to no avail. 

“Manjhi on both occasion assured us all beneficiaries will be identified and ration cards will be provided to them by the end of July 2014. This has not happened till now. We are asking the state government to fulfill all conditions of NFSA by December 31, else we will take necessary action against it,” Paswan added.