Guwahati: Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Khadya Suraksha Yojana is being considered as a possible name change for the National Food Security Act (NFSA) 2013 in order to preserve consistency in the amount of food grains and the price at which they are given across the nation.
According to reports, a significant factor that has prompted the Center to consider changing the name of the Act, according to sources, is that several state governments frequently top up the Central subsidy given to them for implementing the provisions of NFSA with a nominal amount and run it as their own variant, even though the majority of the subsidy burden is borne by the Central government. This is in addition to ensuring uniformity in the quantity of food grains supplied under NFSA and their price.
They further said that several of these state governments offer food grains to recipients through their programmes, which are variations of the NFSA, sometimes even at a price lower than that required by the Central Act.
Therefore, the Center intends to amend its nomenclature by prefixing it with the title “Pradhan Mantri” in order to check such “variations” and stop the state governments from operating variants of NFSA and presenting them as their own efforts, sources pointed out.
Meanwhile, once the NFSA is put into place with a new title, it’s possible that all such state-run programmes will be incorporated under it.