Government not to make amendments in Food Security Act

NEW DELHI: The government has decided not to make any amendments in the Food Security Act as suggested by the High Level Committee (HLC) on restructuring of FCI, Parliament was informed today.

The Shanta Kumar-led committee has recommended to defer the implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the states that have not done end-to-end computerisation.

It has also suggested to reduce the coverage under the Act from 67 per cent of population to 40 per cent and to raise allocation to priority households from 5 kg to 7 kg per person per month.

Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Food, Raosaheb Patil Danve said, "The NFSA Act is already in force and the government has decided not to make any amendments to the Act."

The Minister further said that another recommendation of direct transfer of subsidy is being discussed in various fora for checking diversion of foodgrains.

"Its implementation, however, depends upon readiness of states/UTs in terms of digitisation and de-duplication of the beneficiary data base seeds with bank account numbers and it can be taken up on specific requests from states/UTs," he added.