Papum Pare DA during a review meeting that dealt with the implementation aspects of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the district has delivered a strong message to the stakeholders that all efforts must be employed so that the laid out objectives of the Act are reached. This is the apt approach necessary for realizing the goals pursued through this Act and based on various observations it can be said that the implementation part has always remained a challenge till date since its coming into being from July 2013. 

It can be recalled that with the aim of bestowing food and nutritional security to the most needy segment of the  country through access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices, NFSA was introduced. This also marked a paradigm shift in approach to food security from an existing welfare-centric to a rights-based one and entitlement to receive subsidized food grains under Targeted PDS is a now legal right for up to 75% of the rural as well as 50% of the urban population. Covering a target of about two-third of the  population, pan-Indian implementation in all 36 States/UTs, special focus on nutritional support to women and children and more importantly addition of a legal entitlement have been the unique and finer aspects that had earned global kudos. Six years have passed and although an overall commendable progress has been made, there still exist certain loopholes that are proving to be obstacles in  its ground level  execution. It is understandable that accurate identification of beneficiaries in the context of  a  huge population  and that too in a corruption and malpractice-ridden  system is quite a difficult task. For ascertaining the bona fide beneficiaries it is obvious that there must be exclusion of ineligible/fake/duplicate ration cards and also other exclusions arising out of death, migration etc. and also inclusions on account of birth etc. All these had added to the complexities and made the process continuous  underlying the fact that a  more sustained administrative mechanism  is the only option where there would be stricter vigils.  Aadhaar linkages with ration cards is no doubt a good way to fight corruption that had grown into mammoth levels in the PDS almost all across the country over the decades. But it should also be ensured that no legitimate beneficiary is deprived just for want of biometric identification.   

Since the Act is characteristically based on a collaborative model with states playing the principal role in the implementation part, it is apparent that success will depend greatly on the efficiency of the respective district administrations. It is also true in case of Arunachal and an extra layer of effort must be infused to ensure a ‘letter and spirit’ realization of NFSA.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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