15 Thousand MT Storage Facility at Jatni Inaugurated - - Food Security Bill will have serious impact on Odisha- CM

Bhubaneswar , 19/7 ( Odisha Samachar ) - Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik has said that Food Security Bill would have a serious impact on state. The Chief Minister said this while inaugurating a 15 thousand metric tonne storage facility constructed by Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) at Jatni.

Chief Minister Shri Patnaik said, it is understood that overall rice allotment to the state would decrease from 1, 82,000 MT per month at present to 1, 70,000 MT leading to a reduction of 12,000 Metric Tonne per month. This will have a serious impact on the state, the CM said.

Raising the issue of introduction of new system of entitlement in the Food Security Bill, the Chief Minister said that the new system provides for individual entitlement as against family entitlement system at present.  The new system provides for 5 kg of food grains per person for month whereas the present system provides 25 kg. of rice per month per family.  After the implementation of the Bill, small families and old couples living alone may get only 10 to 15 kg of food grains per month.  This will have a serious adverse impact on the household food security of smaller families, the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister also said that the new Bill has no mention of special groups like Annapurna Beneficiaries, Emergency Feeding and Rice to SC/ST Hostels.

Stating on the construction of storage facilities in the State, the Chief Minister said, Odisha has a target of constructing 3 lakh MT storage facility, out of which, 2 lakh MT facility have already been created.  Apart from the CWC initiatives, the State Government is also planning to create an additional storage capacity of 2 lakh MT in the current year.

The programme was attended by Union Minister of State (Independence charges) for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Prof. K.V. Thomas, Minister for FS&CW Govt. of Odisha Shri Pratap Keshari Deb, MP Dr. Prasanna Kumar Patsani, Jatni MLA Shri Bibhuti Bhusan Balabantaray and Managing Director of Central Warehousing Corporation Shri B.B. Patnaik.