THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After facing subsequent delays, National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, will be finally rolled out in the state in six months. In a significant decision, the Cabinet on Thursday decided to issue new ration cards – which will see BPL/AAY cards replaced with priority category cards – by December.
The Cabinet also cleared a proposal to rank ration card-holders at the state level to determine the priority category.
Earlier, the plan was to have a taluk-level ranking. The decision to have state-level ranking was taken in the wake of complaints that the taluk-based ranking system would leave many deserving families out of the priority category.
Under NFSA, 1,54,80,040 people in the state would be covered by the priority category. Of this, 52.63 per cent should be from the rural areas and 39.5 per cent from the urban locales. Although the previous Oommen Chandy Government had prepared a draft taluk-level ranking list, many eligible families were left out as the percentage of beneficiaries – irrespective of whether they are poor or wealthy – to be included from each taluk remains the same.
The state-level ranking, according to government, would ensure a more equitable distribution of PDS food grain. Kerala had missed several deadlines for enforcing NFSA and recently the Centre had threatened to cut off ad hoc rice allocation blaming the state for its lackadaisical attitude.
No more AWDs
The Cabinet has decided to phase out Authorised Wholesale Dealers (AWD) from the PDS system in the state. Their role will be played by the State Civil Supplies Corporation in a phased manner. To ensure enough stock rooms for food grains, the government will open two government-run godowns each at the block level.
The government also plans to use godowns owned by other Central and state government agencies. Private godowns will be phased out once enough government godowns are available.
Supplyco will be entrusted with the job of carting the food grain from the Food Corporation of India godowns to ration shops.