Starting November, The Food Security Law Will Be Implemented Nationwide

The implementation of National Food Security Law, which entails an annual subsidy of over Rs. 1.4 lakh crore has covered the entire nation this month with two large states, Kerala and Tamil Nadu coming on board, the government said on Tuesday. As many as 80 crore people are covered under this law across 36 states and Union Territories.

Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said, “When we came to power, food law was being implemented in only 11 states. I am happy to share that National Food Security law is being implemented in all states and union territories.” He also added that Kerala and Tamil Nadu were the only states left, but as of November, it has been implemented there as well, after the Centre took a ‘hard decision’ to supply grains to these two States at minimum support prices for Above Poverty Line families.

Under the law, which was passed by Parliament in 2013, the government will provide 5kg of highly subsidised foodgrains per person, per month at Rs. 1-3 per kg. On the subsidy outgo, Paswan said, “It will be Rs. 11,726 crore per month or about Rs. 1,40,700 crore annually.”

The Minister also said that the Center will now focus on further reforms in the public distribution system, which will include end-to-end computerisation to check leakages and diversion of foodgrains, adding that after depots had been made online, foodgrain losses of the Food Corporation of India had been brought down to 0.04%.

Except for channa, the price of pulses has also come down, he added. He said that it was to contain rising wheat prices, the Center decided to release an additional 10 lakh tonnes in the domestic market under the FCI open market scheme.