The Comptroller and Auditor General on Friday rapped the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre over delay in the implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and extending its rollout thrice without Parliament’s approval.
Observing that the states had not identified beneficiaries in a systematic manner, the CAG blamed the Centre for failing to resolve the issues raised by states during the formulation phase and also after enactment of the law, which led to delay in implementation in several states and union territories.
The CAG has evaluated preparedness of 18 states/UTs for implementation of the law in its audit report released on Friday. However, the NFSA — which came into force on July 5, 2013 — has been rolled out in 33 states/UTs so far.
“As per section 10 (1) of the NFSA, state governments were to identify the eligible households within one year from the commencement of the food security law i.e., till July 4, 2014. However, it was noted that only 11 states/UTs reported completion of this work within the time-frame. The government later extended the time-frame in June 2014 by three months violating the norm,” the CAG report stated.
“Since no other state reported completion of identification of beneficiaries even during the extended period, it was further extended by another six months and then again by six months till September 30, 2015,” the report added.
Rapping the government for overlooking the provisions, the CAG report said, “The NFSA has no provision for extension of time. However, Section 42 (1) of the Act mentions that if any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of the food security law, the government may make provisions for removing the difficulty that too within two years from the commencement of the Act. Also, it has to be laid before the each House of Parliament, which was not followed by Centre,” it said.
The NFSA aims to provide foodgrains to 81.34 -crore beneficiaries at highly subsidised rate of Rs 1-3 per kg. The law seeks to bring about changes in the PDS that suffered from several deficiencies.
“Two-and-a-half years since the NFSA came into force, only 18 states/UTs are reported to have started implementing the NFSA. Only 51 per cent of the eligible beneficiaries were identified in all states/UTs,” the CAG said.
Most states did not identify the poorest of the poor under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and priority household beneficiaries as per the provisions of the NFSA, but used the old database for extending the benefits, the CAG noted.
In Himachal Pradesh, the CAG said 6.9 lakh old ration cards were stamped as priority households and AAY households and re-issued as NFSA compliant. In Karnataka, 8.90 lakh bogus and ineligible ration cards were found in the existing system.