Food and Civil Supplies dept still awaits list of beneficiaries

SHILLONG: The Food and Civil Supplies department will hold a review meeting next month to analyse the State’s readiness as far as the implementation of the Food Security Bill is concerned.
According to official sources here the Deputy Commissioners of all the districts are still in the process of identifying the beneficiaries for the purpose.
In August last, Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma had said that the State Government would complete the process of identifying the beneficiaries of the Bill within 60 days and accordingly prepare a draft list following which the next 10 days will be for claims and objections for the inclusion of beneficiaries in the list.
However, five months later, the list of beneficiaries for the State is still to be prepared.
It may be mentioned that the Food Security Bill was signed by President Pranab Mukherjee on July 5 last and subsequently passed by the Lok Sabha on August 26 and the Rajya Sabha on September 2.
All states were asked to implement it within six months.
However, Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Clement Marak recently told media persons that several states including Meghalaya had sought extension for implementing the Bill and the same has been granted to an extent.
It may be mentioned that the Food Security Bill, 2013 aims to provide food grains every month to two-thirds of India’s population at highly subsidized rates and altogether 21,94,000 people out of the total population of 29,64,000 in Meghalaya (as per the 2011 census) is expected to benefit from the scheme.