Gujarat finally decides to implement food law, seeks a year's time

New Delhi: The Gujarat government, which previously had reservations about the food security law, has sought one year extension for implementing the legislation.

The Centre has already given three months more, till October, to implement the Food Security Act that gives two- thirds of the country’s population the right to subsidised foodgrains.

Raising the issue in a meeting with Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan here today, Gujarat Food Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama flagged the concerns of the state.

[caption id=“attachment_92691” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption]

“Gujarat wanted the deadline for implementation of the food security act to be extended for one year. We said that we have already extended it till October and it should make efforts to implement it by then,” Paswan told PTI after the meeting.

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Meanwhile, according to sources, Chudasama expressed concerns that the allocation of 5 kg foodgrains per person is less and this needs to be raised.

He also demanded the state be given the flexibility to shift beneficiaries from rural and urban areas to cover the migrant population under the law and the Centre should bear the expenditure of delivering foodgrains at doorstep among others, they added.

Sources mentioned that the Gujarat government has also written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagging these concerns.

Gujarat, under Modi, had opposed the food security law saying it fails to address both calorific and nutritional security of the poor.

At present, only 5 states have so far fully implemented the food law and another 6 have rolled out it partially. As many as 25 states and union territories are yet to roll out the food security law.

In September last year, Parliament passed the Food Security Act that gave legal entitlement to highly subsidised foodgrains to two-thirds of the country’s population. The ordinance was, however, issued in July 2013.

Each eligible person would get 5 kg of of rice and wheat at Rs 3 and Rs 2 per kg respectively. The existing Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) households, poorest of the poor, will continue to receive 35 kg of foodgrains per family a month.

PTI