PANJIM: After losing the Panchayats portfolio on Sunday, Civil Supplies Minister Dayanand Mandrekar fired his first salvo against Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar blaming the latter for the delay in implementing the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in Goa.
Mandrekar questioned, whether Goa government is serious about the implementation of the NFSA. “I don’t know whether the government is aware of the importance of the said Act,” he told Herald.
Mandrekar said the Act’s implementation was delayed because of the clearance from the Finance department which is handled by Parsekar.
“The file which was sent in September last year was cleared only in January this year, it took four months to clear it. I don’t even take 15 minutes to clear any files of my department, I don’t know why it was delayed” Mandrekar said.
He said that the file is presently with the Chief Minister for past one month and has still not been cleared by him.
Goa, which thrice missed the deadline to implement the NFSA in the past year, has now set October-end as the new deadline. Mandrekar said his department has been working tirelessly for the last two months to meet the October-end deadline to implement the NFSA.
“I have requested the central Ministry of Civil Supplies to extend the deadline by one month for Goa which they have agreed. I am daily monitoring the work of the department so that it will be implemented within this time frame,” Mandrekar said.
Mandrekar said that almost 75% of the work for the implementation of the NFSA is complete and the government printing press is printing 7000 rations cards.
Civil Supplies Director Vikas Gaunekar said that 1.22 lakh ration card holders, found eligible after verification, will come under the NFSA and of the annual quota of 59,000 tonnes around 32,000 to 34,000 tonnes will be distributed under NFSA and the rest will be distributed to ration card holder above poverty line (APL).
He said that of the existing 4.10 lakh rations cards, at least 30% will be disqualified as they are not eligible under the income limit.
National Food Security Act, 2013, is a central Act which aims to provide food grains to approximately two thirds of 1.2 billion people. According to Civil Supplies department in Goa this scheme will benefit 5.32 lakh people.
