Gujarat Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama today said that the state government has planned to implement the National Food Security Act by April.
The reaction from Chudasama, Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, came after the Supreme Court today slammed the Gujarat government as well as some other states for not implementing the National Food Security Act.
"Under this Act, we have to first prepare the list of all the eligible households. Then, we need to publish this list at all the cities and villages to invite objections from citizens and make necessary corrections," he said.
"Till now, we have already prepared the list of beneficiaries. Our panchayat department has started the process of inviting objections by organising gram-sabhas at various places. Our government has planned to implement this Act by April this year," the minister said.
He also claimed that the Gujarat government has been granted extension by the Centre in the past for implementing the Act.
"In the past, we have sought more time from Centre to implement this Act here, and the Centre has granted us the extension at that time," Chudasama added.
A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur today during the hearing of case in the Supreme Court while slamming the Gujarat government had said, "What is Parliament doing? Is Gujarat not a part of India? The Act says it extends to whole of India and Gujarat is not implementing it. Tomorrow somebody can say that it is not going to implement the CrPC, IPC and the Evidence Act."
A few days back, the Gujarat High Court had also issued notice to state government on the same matter while hearing a public interest litigation demanding payment of food security allowance to around 3.82 crore eligible beneficiaries in the state.
