TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The State government constituted committee has begun the exercise of drafting guidelines that would be used to identify beneficiaries under the newly legislated national food security act.
As per the NFSA, 36.5 per cent or 5.32 lakh of Goa’s population (2011 census) would be eligible for benefits under the newly legislated NFSA, against the existing 1.35 lakh BPL in the State.
The civil supplies department is hoping to finalize the guidelines by February end and submit its report to the government.
“The National food security act guidelines have been received and States are free to draw up their guidelines and methodology for identifying households,” a Secretariat official said.
“Goa has independent data and we will need to see what more needs to be added to it for a more effective survey,” the official said.
Next week the committee meeting will draw up its action plan and submit it to the government.
The committee is relying on latest data from rural development agency census on socio-economic-caste census done on February 3, 2014.
The census covered close to 85 per cent of the population and will invite objections and suggestions to complete the process. The civil supplies department says that this would help in identifying the 5.32 priority households.
