Kerala Food Security Act to Start In April 2017
The Kerala state government has introduced a new law to ensure that food is properly distributed to people in the state in a sensible manner. The Food Security Act will be put into place on 1st April 2017. The Food Security Act will provide foods to ration card holders around the state. New cards will be sent out to people around the state as a means of getting the bill to move forward.
This is all to improve upon how food is distributed within the state. It makes the process of getting it out more transparent.
This will entail getting more foods out to people who require it. However, there is a need for the government to take a look at who will be eligible for it and how the program may be used in general. It is to improve upon the lives of all people who are directly involved with it.
Ration Shops Aren’t Needed
An important part of the Food Security Act is that ration shops will not be necessary. There were issues with getting foods distributed through ration shops around the state. By using ration cards given by the government, it will be easier for foods to be distributed so people will get the foods they are looking for in an appropriate fashion.
The government will be responsible for getting proper rations out to people over an extended period of time. This is especially to improve upon how well rations are to be sent out as priorities will be listed when figuring out who will be eligible for getting different types of foods. This especially comes as many foods will be essential for helping people to stay healthy and properly nourished.
Rice Quotas Will Change
Rice quotas in Kerala will be updated to reflect the new act. The quota will move back to 16.50 lakh metric tonnes per year for distribution. This is an increase over the 14.5 lakh metric tonnes that had originally been planned.
The rice that has been gathered especially comes from a vast variety of groups:
- About 1.87 lakh metric tonnes of rice has been gathered from more than 50,000 farmers. This was done at a cost of Rs. 22.5 per kilogram.
- About Rs. 420.76 crore will be given to farmers to help them produce enough rice for the scheme. About a third of that total has been given out as of the start of 2017.
Added quotas will be used for other foods. It is unclear as to what will be applied but this will help with improving upon how well foods will be given out to more people in a carefully controlled manner.
Additional Plans
This is an essential solution that will help with improving upon how people can get foods as desired. This will especially be important for how different types of foods are to be offered and also for how the government will have plenty of support for taking care of them all as necessary. There are many added points to watch for in this new act:
- A better variety of food staples will be made available to people through the scheme. Wheat will particularly be added as one item for the program.
- Added monitoring will be used to ensure that corruption will not be a threat. One particular example of monitoring corruption came from officials recently finding 100 tonnes of spoiled rice that was held in a private mill in Kottayam. Farmers are expected to be more responsible and controlled in terms of getting their foods out to the public.
- The central government will be more responsible for taking care of payments to the Kerala government. Of the nearly Rs. 376.5 crore that is spent each month on covering the costs of food staples, all but about Rs. 40 crore of that total will provided by the government.
More plans may be added over time. This should help with improving upon how well different plans might be used to keep foods secure and easy for people to afford.
How Will It Be Implemented?
Although the new act will be effective for many needs, there are concerns over how in particular it will be implemented. There are concerns in particular over who will be eligible for support. About 700,000 people have complained over being kept off of the list for eligibility to participate in the program.
There were also a few delays in getting the list ready. There were concerns over who could be interpreted as being eligible for support. This made for some rather difficult considerations for choosing who could get support for the program.
BPL and AAY families will get access to the foods first. They are listed as priority figures on a listing highlighting those who have a greater need for foods.
The Kerala Food Security Act will help with getting people to receive the foods they require. People will have to watch for how they can get foods from the program as it will help with getting foods out to those who require it.
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