Naveen Questions Food Bill Bhubaneswar : 19/July/2013 Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has said that Food Security Bill would have a serious impact on state. The Chief Minister said this while inaugurating a 15 thousand metric tonne storage facility constructed by Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) at Jatni. The program was attended by Union Minister of State (Independence charges) for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Prof. K.V. Thomas, Minister for Food Supply and Consumer Welfare, Pratap Keshari Deb, MP, Prasanna Kumar Patsani, Jatni MLA Bibhuti Bhusan Balabantaray and Managing Director of Central Warehousing Corporation B B Patnaik. Mr.Patnaik said, it is understood that overall rice allotment to the state would decrease from 1, 82,000 MT per month at present to 1, 70,000 MT leading to a reduction of 12,000 Metric Tonne per month. This will have a serious impact on the state, he said. Raising the issue of introduction of new system of entitlement in the Food Security Bill, the Chief Minister said that the new system provides for individual entitlement as against family entitlement system at present. The new system provides for 5 kg of food grains per person for month whereas the present system provides 25 kg. of rice per month per family. After the implementation of the Bill, small families and old couples living alone may get only 10 to 15 kg of food grains per month. This will have a serious adverse impact on the household food security of smaller families, Mr.Patnaik said. The Chief Minister also said that the new Bill has no mention of special groups like Annapurna Beneficiaries, Emergency Feeding and Rice to SC/ST Hostels. Stating on the construction of storage facilities in the State, the Chief Minister said, Odisha has a target of constructing 3 lakh MT storage facility, out of which, 2 lakh MT facility have already been created. Apart from the CWC initiatives, the State Government is also planning to create an additional storage capacity of 2 lakh MT in the current year.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Jul 2013 07:04:25 +0000