Bihar to launch Food Security Scheme only in 2014, says Nitish

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose party JD(U) voted in support of UPA government’s Food Bill, on Monday said groundwork for launching the scheme is on, and it will be rolled out in the state next year. “Since a lot of ground work like identification of beneficiaries, increasing PDS shops and constituting teams for monitoring and redressal of grievances needs to be done, it will not be possible to launch the Food legislation in this calender year,” Kumar told reporters after his ‘Janata Ke Darbar me Mukya Mantri’ programme. However, the exercise is being carried on at maximum pace and it will be given a shape of law sometime next year, he said. [caption id=“attachment_1095815” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. PTI[/caption]Kumar said he wanted to make full-proof arrangements before launching the scheme, which promises rice at Rs 3 per kg, wheat at Rs 2/kg and millet at Rs 1 per kg. He said the task for identification of beneficiaries, which would be 84 percent of population in rural areas and 71 per cent in urban regions, has been given to a committee which is carrying a Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) on the basis of which exclusion criteria will be decided. The Committee headed by Principal Secretary of Food department Shishir Sinha is expected to finish the task in next 4-6 months, he said adding after this the census would be made public and put up for public opinion. Kumar said number of PDS shops also needs to be increased for effective implementation of the scheme for which work is going on. “Then we have to constitute Food Security Committee to monitor the scheme and redress grievances of people,” he added. Kumar further said that though all the three necessary steps are being carried out simultaneously, it is taking time because of natural calamities like floods in some parts of the state. “In another 2-3 months we will be able to decide a probable time for launch of Food law in next calendar year,” the Chief Minister said. Food Security Act, a pet project of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, is being considered as a game changer for Congress in the upcoming 2014 Lok Sabha elections. PTI