Congress President Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel today slammed the Gujarat government for seeking another extension to implement the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
In a letter to Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, Ahmed took a dig at the 'Gujarat Model' and questioned the efficiency of state administration in implementing the Act.
"Over the past several years, the state government has invested substantial amount of resources in highlighting it's administrative efficiency called the Gujarat Model of Governance. Hence, it is surprising that the state has repeatedly missed the deadline, since states with larger populations like Bihar have already implemented it," he said.
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Two days ago, Gujarat Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama stated that he had requested Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan to extend the deadline for rolling out NFSA till March 2016, since the Gujarat government is still preparing a digitised database of beneficiaries.
Reacting to the development, Ahmed stated in his letter that earlier, Gujarat had sought as well as received a one-year extension in August 2014, which ends on September this year.
"The latest request (by the Gujarat government) is a major setback in the efforts to ensure legally guaranteed subsidised food grains to our population. There should not be any delay in meeting the revised deadline of September 2015, as mandated by the Central government," Patel said.
"During the Digital India Week, it was claimed that Gujarat is making giant strides in digital governance and e-governance. So why has the state government not been able to exploit such advances to update the list of beneficiaries in order to implement the Act," Patel said.
