Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan today urged the Assam Government to speed up implementation of the Food Security Act so that 84 per cent of rural and 60 per cent of urban population in the state can get rice at Rs 3 per kg and wheat at Rs 2 per kg.
Implementation of the Act was delayed in Assam as mandatory digitisation of records of beneficiaries was not done by the state, Paswan told reporters after inaugurating the official building of the National Test House in Guwahati.
"Finally it has come into force in Assam in December and over 2.52 crore people of the 3.11 crore population in the state now will be benefited with subsidised foodgrains.
The Central government has decided to share 50 per cent (75 per cent in the case of Hilly and difficult areas) of the cost of handling and transportation of food grains incurred by the states and the dealers' margin so that it is not passed on to the beneficiaries.
To make the system transparent and leak proof, online allocation of food grains has been implemented in 20 states and Union Territories, he said.
Toll free help lines have been installed in 32 States/ UTs and online grievance redressal mechanism implemented in all 36 States/UTs, the minister said.
Supporting demands for subsidised food grains to tea garden workers, Paswan said benefit of heavily subsidised food grains should also be passed on to the tea garden workers who were earlier not getting direct benefit of PDS as bulk allocation of food grains was made to garden management only.
"That is why for the first time, tea garden workers also have been made eligible to receive food grain under PDS. 17.97 lakh tea garden workers have started receiving food grain under the NFSA", he said.
"Monthly allocation of 12,590 tons of food grains to the State Government is being by the Central Government for distribution among tea garden workers," Paswan said.
Stating the N-E region is a priority area for his ministry, he said adequate supply of food grains was ensured using multi-modal transport in N-E States during disruption in rail route due to gauge conversion from Lumding to Badarpur.
Roads and river routes are used for the purpose and storage capacity has been increased, he said.
Inaugurating the National Test House building equipped with advance facilities for testing civil engineering and chemical materials, he said it will be upgraded with new facilities to cater to demands of the industries located in the North-East at a lower rate than private testing centres.
The NTH with its headquarters at Kolkata is a laboratory to test materials of engineering branches except Food, Pharmaceuticals and Arms and Ammunitions.
