Centre to rename Food Security Act to a "PM Yojana"
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New Delhi: The Union government is thinking of changing the name of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013 to "Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Khadya Suraksha Yojana". IANS claims that through the move, the Centre aims to maintain uniformity in the quantity of the foodgrains which are distributed across India.
IANS reports that another reason behind the Centre's new move was that several state governments tend to top up the Central subsidy provided to them for implementing the provisions of NFSA with a nominal amount and run it as their own variant, despite the fact that the majority of the subsidy burden is borne by the Union government.
Top sources told IANS that the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution had prepared a draft Cabinet note to seek an opinion on the matter from the Ministries of Law and Finance along with other departments concerned.
According to them, several state governments, though their own schemes, which are variants of NFSA, provide foodgrains free of cost to the beneficiaries and sometimes even at less than the price mandated under the Central Act.
The Centre intends to check such variants and stop the state governments from running variants of NFSA, claiming them as their own schemes.
They further said that NFSA ensures doorstep delivery of subsidised foodgrains to the beneficiaries with fair-price shops, but many states distorted this provision by providing home delivery of subsidised foodgrains at the doorsteps of the beneficiaries adversely affecting fair-price shops' networks in said states.
The Center will subsume all the schemes run by states under the NFSA once the new naming is implemented.
The NFSA 2013 was enacted by the previous Congress-led UPA regime to ensure food security and provide access to quality food at a reasonable price to the rural and urban poor. Under it, rural and urban poor receive subsidised foodgrains through the targeted public distribution system (TPDS).