SHILLONG: The Congress-ruled UPA-II Government at the Centre might be counting on the Food Security Bill to turn their fortunes in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections but the Congress-ruled MUA-II Government seems to be in no hurry to launch the scheme in Meghalaya to plug any leakages and cripple manipulations.
Speaking to media persons on the sideline of a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma admitted that under the existing Public Distribution System, the quantum of food grains as per entitlements do not reach the concerned people due to leakage and manipulations.
The Chief Minister pointed out that in order to thwart any leakages in the Food Security Bill, the Government would not launch the programme in a rush but instead it wants the list of the targeted population that needs to be covered under the programme which is being prepared from the recent economic census.
The State Government has targeted 75 per cent of the rural population of the State to be covered under the proposed scheme. 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.
According to Dr. Sangma, many of the districts in the State at the moment do not have additional storage facility for food grains.
Reacting to a query, he said that the computerization of the Public Distribution System is on and funds have been allocated to the Food and Civil Supply department in this regard.
In addition to the Food Security Bill, the State Government is also contemplating to provide the people of the State with easy access to fruits and vegetables for which the Government has decided to create the required infrastructure for collection and marketing of fruits and vegetables.
“We will ask the Agriculture and Horticulture Departments to empower farmers to increase the production which we target to achieve through organic farming,” the Chief Minister said.
