Odisha’s own food security programme gets Cabinet nod. Details here

Bhubaneswar: The beneficiaries left out under National Food Security Act (NFSA) have a reason to rejoice as the Cabinet today approved the proposals of Odisha government’s own version of the Central scheme.

“All the eligible people will be included under the scheme. In the first phase, the government has set a target to cover around 25 lakh beneficiaries under the scheme to be implemented from October 2,” Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi told reporters after the meeting.

In the first two quarters of the implementation of the scheme, the state government would shell around Rs 220 crore to meet the expenses. Besides, the requirement of requisite quantity of rice will be met out of the state pool, official sources said.

Notably, the state government took a decision to roll out a food security scheme on the lines of NFSA after nearly 34.44 lakh people from state were excluded from the national scheme that was implemented as per the socio-economic caste census in 2011.

As per official sources, the approximate population of the state in 2018 is 4,62,63,938. Despite state government’s request to increase the beneficiaries under ceiling, the pleas went unheard prompting the state government to launch the scheme.

For this, the state government would amend Odisha Food Security Rules, 2017 to accommodate the left out beneficiaries.

The state government has proposed nine exclusion criteria and 11 auto inclusion criteria for selection of beneficiaries under the food security scheme.

Nine exclusion criteria to be used during selection of eligible beneficiaries under the scheme:

1. Household having a member who owns a four wheeler vehicle or a heavy vehicle.
2. Households having a member working as a regular employee or central or the state government, public sector undertaking, government aided autonomous bodies and local bodies (incentive and honorarium based workers would not be considered under this criterion).
3. Households having a member working in private sector with a monthly salary of more than Rs 10,000 per month in rural areas and Rs 15,000 per month in urban areas.
4. Households having a member who owns an enterprise (other than micro-enterprises) registered with the government for manufacturing and services.
5. Households having domestic electric connection with a load of 2 KW or more and/or consuming an average of 300 units of energy (KWH) per month (average over one year).
6. Households having a member paying income tax or professional tax.
7. Households having a member drawing a monthly pension of more than Rs 10,000 per month in rural areas and Rs 15,000 per month in urban areas.
8. Households having a member who owns tractors and harvesters.
9. Households who own three or more rooms with RCC roof not constructed under the Indira Awas Yojana or the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana or the Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana or the Nirman Shramik Yojana.

Eleven auto inclusion criteria for selection of beneficiaries under the scheme:

Five new auto-inclusion criteria have been proposed i.e, as at (G) to (K) below to be added to the existing 6 auto inclusion criteria under NFSA. These five criteria have been included as per guidelines issued by Centre to cover poor and distressed persons under Antodaya Anna yojana and Annapurna scheme.

1. All households coming under Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) category.
2. Households without shelter (Certificate from people’s representative/any responsible officer of the concerned block/urban local body)
3. Households without destitute living on alms (Certificate from people’s representative/any responsible officer of the concerned block/urban local body)
4. Households with widows and other single women with no regular support.
5. Households having a person with disability (40% and above)
6. Transgender applicant.
7. Households with old persons (aged 60 or above) with no regular support and no assured means of subsistence.
8. Households where due to old age, lack of physical or mental fitness, social customs, need to care for disable or other persons, no adult member is available to engage in gainful employment outside the house.
9. Households dependent on daily wage labour.
10. Internally displaced persons due to various projects.
11. Households having a person suffering from leprosy/HIV/any other critical diseases.