Centre intentionally stopping Assam from rolling out NFSA: Minister

GUWAHATI: The Assam government today said if the Centre does not allow it to roll out the National Food Security Act, then it will be an "intentional step to stop this before the polls in 2016."

"We have some limitations. We will tell these to the Centre. If they still hold on to it, that means they do not want to do this. As Assam is going for polls in 2016, they want us to stop from launching NFSA intentionally," Food and Civil Supplies minister Nazrul Islam said at the Assembly.

He said when the NDA government came to power, it brought a clause that end-to-end computerisation has to be done before launching the scheme.

"This clause of computerisation was not there in the original Act. When UPA government was there, 11 states already rolled out the scheme," Islam said.

He said already 75 per cent of the cards have been computerised across the states and it would be completed within the next few months.

The minister said end-to-end computerisation would mean digitisation of all cooperative societies, which would be a difficult task as many of them do not even have electricity connections.

Earlier raising the issue, AGP MLA Keshab Mahanta asked why Assam was being deprived of the ambitious scheme when some states were taking the benefit of the NFSA.

"Is it because of the inefficiency of the public distribution system in the state or some other reasons? We have seen in recent times that the Centre is creating lots of problems for Assam," he added.

The minister accepted that there was leakage in the PDS and requested all MLAs to keep a vigil in their respective constituencies to help the government in checking it.

During the discussion, Islam also said the state government was giving subsidised food grains to tea garden labourers after an order of the Gauhati High Court.