Bihar government asked to meet NFSA by December end

The Central government has asked Bihar government to meet all conditions of National Food Security Act (NFSA) till December 31 this year, according to a PTI report.

The Central government has asked Bihar government to fulfill all conditions of National Food Security Act (NFSA) till December 31 this year, failing which action will be taken,” Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister for Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs, told PTI.

The minister also accused the local 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 added.

"Bihar government has failed to upload the digitised database of NFSA beneficiaries on the authorised portal, and has not provided any figures related to food grain distribution on time. This has hampered the end to end computerisation and transparency aspect of food security to the people. There have been numerous complaints from rural areas of Bihar regarding non-availability of food grains," Paswan further informed PTI.

According to the PTI report, NFSA was implemented in Bihar from March 2014, and the food grain allocation to it has been raised from 36.32 lakh tonne to 55.27 lakh tonne per annum under the scheme.