Nation Food Security Act provides coverage of 75 pc rural, 50 pc urban population
Feb 10, 2023
New Delhi [India], February 10 : Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Friday informed, that under the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA), while Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) households that constitute the poorest of the poor are legally entitled to receive 35 kg of foodgrains per family per month, priority households are entitled to 5 kg per person per month, said a press release by Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.
There is no change in the entitlement of food grains of beneficiaries under the Act. Phase VII of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yajana (PMGKAY) was in operation upto December 21, 2022, added the press release.
The Central Government to remove the financial burden of the poor beneficiaries and to ensure nationwide uniformity and effective implementation of NFSA has decided to provide food grains free of cost to AAY households and PHH beneficiaries under NFSA, 2013, for a period of one year beginning from 1st Jan 2023, as per the statement.
Under the PMGKAY (Phase I to VII), the entire expenditure towards food subsidy, intra-state movement & handling of foodgrains and fair price shop dealers margin were borne by the Central Government. The additional cost of making foodgrains free of cost to the NFSA beneficiaries for one year from 01.01.2023 will be borne by the Government of India.
The National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) provides coverage of upto 75 percent of the rural and upto 50 per cent of the urban population for highly subsidized foodgrains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), which in Census 2011 comes to about 81.35 crores.
The Coverage under the Act is substantially high to ensure that all the vulnerable and needy sections of society get its benefit. At present, no proposal for universalization of the coverage under the Act is under consideration by the Government.
The Central Government issues advisories to all the States/Union Territories from time to time to identify all eligible and poor persons/ households including vulnerable Sections of Society for inclusion under the NFSA. States are undertaking an updation of their beneficiary database so that bogus ration cards get deleted and better targeting of rightful beneficiaries is ensured. Thus, the deletion of ineligible beneficiaries and adding eligible beneficiaries under the Act is a continuous process.
