BHUBANESWAR: THE State Government on Thursday reiterated its demand for more rice for additional 17 lakh people under National Food Security Act (NFSA). The issue of Central contribution to the revolving fund created to support market interventions for price stabilisation of perishable agricultural commodities was raised during the meeting of Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister SN Patro with Union Minister for Consumer Affairs Ram Vilas Paswan in New Delhi.
The Centre has been allocating food grains to Odisha based on the 2011 Census. Meanwhile, population of the State has grown by four to five per cent during the last six years as is evident from the trends of decadal growth rate in Odisha from the Census report.
“I requested the Union Minister to increase the upper ceiling of Odisha by 15 lakh individuals for coverage of left out eligible population into NFSA fold keeping in view the projected population growth from 2011 to 2017 and more importantly, the backwardness of the State with higher density of Scheduled category people,” Patro told this paper after the meeting.
The State has been allotted rice for 3,26,41,800 out of State’s total population of 4,19,74,218 under NFSA in priority household, Annapurna Anna Yojana and Antyodaya Anna Yojana, Patro said.
The upper ceiling for the State has been determined at 82.17 per cent of rural population and 55.77 per cent of urban population with reference to the NSS household consumption survey data for 2011-12 available with Planning Commission.
Projecting the population figure of the State at 436.50 lakh, Patro urged the Union Minister to fix the upper ceiling for the State at Rs 340.49 lakh against Rs 326.41 lakh fixed by the Centre.
Since there is no provision of auto inclusion under NFSA, Paswan said his Ministry is planning to bring an amendment in the Act in next session of the Parliament.
Patro further requested Paswan to release the Central share of Rs 50 crore to the State’s revolving fund created for market intervention to save farmers from distress sale of perishable agri-horticultural commodities, like potato and onion.
The State has created a corpus of Rs 100 crore under Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) scheme of the Centre for the purpose. Though Odisha has provided its share of `50 crore, the Centre is yet to release its matching share.