Food Ordinance: States like K'taka could roll out early

Several states including Congress-ruled Karnataka, BJP-led Chattigarh and SP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and JD(U)-run Bihar could see early roll out of the Centre's new food security programme.
Billed as the world's largest social welfare programme, Karnataka could take a lead in implementing it given the fact the Congress has come to power there with the promise of delivering 10 kg of rice at Rs 1 per kilo per month.
Infact, the government sources said the state chief minister Siddaramaiah had recently met the Union Food Minister K V Thomas seeking higher allocation of rice to fulfil the election manifesto. He was, however, asked to wait for the clearance of food security ordinance.

BJP-ruled Chattisgarh is already implementing a similar programme, and it would be easier for the state to follow the new food security provisions of the central government, thereby reducing its subsidy burden substantially.
Tamil Nadu is also implementing the universal Public Distribution System (PDS) and thinking in the Food Ministry is that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa could utilise the opportunity to cut the state expenditure on its food programme.
This is notwithstanding the AIADMK supremo's criticism of the ambitious measure dubbing it as a political gimmick.

The government sources said that the ball is in the court of Chief Ministers Akhilesh Yadav and Nitish Kumar to take a call on the implementation of the programme.

The government refrain is that if there is political will in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the state governments will lose no time in implementing the measure.
As per the ordinance signed by President Pranab Mukherjee, the new food security programme should be rolled out within six months. The rules for implementation of this programme will be framed separately by the Centre and the respective state governments.