Odisha CM orders action against officials violating NFSA norms

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Nov 18:

With hundreds of thousands of legitimate beneficiaries missing their names on NFSA (National Food Security Act) rolls and a lot more illegitimate beneficiaries enlisted, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today ordered action against the erring employees that caused the violation of NFSA norms.

As per a press note issued by the Chief Minister’s Office, Patnaik came down heavily on the government officials and Panchayati Raj members involved in getting illegitimate beneficiaries enlisted in NFSA rolls and asked district collectors to initiate both departmental and legal proceedings against them. Besides, he suggested a correction in the beneficiary roll in the shortest possible time.

He also suggested implementing a confidential system that would encourage people to tip off authorities regarding illegitimate beneficiaries and advised the Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department to encourage such citizens with awards.

Further, he asked to ensure timely distribution of ration to all legitimate beneficiaries in the 14 districts where NFSA has already been rolled out.

The Chief Minister made the observations while reviewing the progress of National Food Security Act (NFSA) roll-out and drought situation in the state with district collectors at the secretariat today in a meeting held via tele-conferencing.

Reviewing the drought condition, he focused on distribution of input subsidy to the farmers.

While some of the districts such as Bargarh, Bolangir and Subarnapur have fared well in the distribution, many other districts lagged behind, he pointed out and asked the collectors to disburse sufficient amounts of input subsidy within next one week.

Further, he asked the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) to update him the daily progress in distribution of the subsidy after a week. In addition, he also asked the Home Secretary to continue with the stringent action being taken against private money lenders in Bolangir, Khurda, Sambalpur, and Ganjam districts and review the action being taken there at a regular interval.

Discussing about irrigation, he advised the officials to take necessary steps to get the non-functional Lift Irrigation (LI) points back to work and expedite the distribution of 40,000 pump sets.