West Bengal to launch food law in 3 districts from June 1

NEW DELHI: West Bengal will roll out National Food Security Act from June 1 in three districts including Cooch Behar, taking the total number of implementing states and Union Territories to 12.

The food law, passed by Parliament in September 2013 during the previous UPA regime, has so far been rolled out in 11 states/UTs. Remaining 24 states/UTs have not yet implemented the scheme.

"The West Bengal government has conveyed that it will launch the food security law from June 1 in three districts - Dakshin Dinajpur, Uttar Dinajpur and Cooch Behar," a senior Union Food Ministry official told PTI.

The Ministry has already allocated 26,662 tonnes of foodgrains for distribution via public distribution system (PDS) to 49.78 lakh beneficiaries in these three districts during June, the official said.

Once the food law is rolled out in all the 19 districts, the state would get 38.49 lakh tonnes of foodgrains (wheat and rice) from the Central government for PDS distribution to a maximum 601.84 lakh beneficiaries, the official added.

At present, 11 states/UTs - Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi and Chandigarh have implemented the Act, some of them fully and others partially.

The deadline for implementing the food law has been extended thrice. The latest deadline is in September.

The law aims to provide legal entitlement to 5 kg of subsidised foodgrains per person per month at Rs 1-3/kg to two-third of the country's population.

At present, the Centre is allocating foodgrains to 11 states/UTs as per the new food law, while the rest are getting foodgrains quota as per earlier PDS norms.