Meghalaya fared poorly in the ranking of states and union territories of India as far as implementation of National Food Security Act (NFSA).
The first edition of ‘State Ranking Index for NFSA’ released today showed that out of the 34 states and union territories, Meghalaya was placed at the 33rd rank with an index score of 0.512.
Odisha has been adjudged the top ranked State followed by Uttar Pradesh at the second spot and Andhra Pradesh at third amongst the General Category states in ‘State Ranking Index for NFSA’.
Among the Special Category states and union territories, Tripura stood first followed by Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim respectively.
Further, among the three union territories where Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) – Cash is operational, Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu is the top ranked union territory.
The ‘State Ranking Index for NFSA’ was released by Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Textiles and Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal today in New Delhi.
This “State Ranking Index for NFSA” attempts to document the status and progress of implementation of NFSA and various reform initiatives across the country, post consultation with states.
It highlights the reforms undertaken by states and union territories and creates a cross-learning environment and scale-up reform measures by all states and union territories.
The present index is largely focused on NFSA distribution and will include procurement, PMGKAY distribution in future.
The index for ranking the states and union territories is built on three key pillars which covers the end-to-end implementation of NFSA through TPDS.
These pillars are NFSA – Coverage, targeting and provisions of the Act, Delivery platform, and Nutrition initiatives.
The National Food Security Act (NFSA) was enacted on July 5, 2013 with the objective to provide for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantities of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity.
The Act provides for coverage of upto 75 per cent of the rural population and upto 50 per cent of the urban population for receiving subsidised foodgrains under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), thus covering about two-thirds of the population.
The eligible persons will be entitled to receive 5 Kgs of foodgrains per person per month at subsidised prices of Rs 3/2/1 per Kg for rice/wheat/coarse grains. The existing Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) households, which constitute the poorest of the poor, will continue to receive 35 Kgs of foodgrains per household per month.
The Act also has a special focus on the nutritional support to women and children. Besides meals to pregnant women and lactating mothers during pregnancy and six months after the child birth, such women will also be entitled to receive maternity benefit of not less than Rs 6,000. Children upto 14 years of age will be entitled to nutritious meals as per the prescribed nutritional standards. In case of non-supply of entitled foodgrains or meals, the beneficiaries will receive food security allowance.
The Act also contains provisions for setting up grievance redressal mechanisms at the district and State levels. Separate provisions have also been made in the Act for ensuring transparency and accountability.
