Controversies mire NFSA in Sadar Hills
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, January 25 2014 : Even as the National Food Security Act (NFSA) is yet to be imple-mented in the State, the same Act has run into troubled water in Sadar Hills with one Clerk of CAF&PD distributing benefi-ciary forms at his/her own whims without knowledge of the district level food security committee.

On learning about distribution of beneficiary forms arbitrarily, the district level food security committee held a meeting and discussed the matter today, informed a source.

MLA Nemcha Kipgen, MLA Yamthong Haokip and Members of Sadar Hills ADC were present at the meeting presided by MLA Ngam-thang Haokip.

During the meeting, the ADC Members made a strong point questioning who were behind the arbitrary distribution of application forms for selection of NFSA beneficiaries.

However, none of the MLAs gave any answer.

It is possible that the three MLAs have knowledge about distribution of beneficiary forms, said the source.

Nevertheless, the meeting came to an agreement that only genuine BPL families would be selected after mi-nute scrutiny by the district level food security committee and the block level committee as and when the application forms are submitted.

One CAF&PD official said that if a family really be-longs to BPL category, there is no harm in issuing NFSA application form.

As all families who have been issued application forms would be selected as beneficiaries of NFSA, the number of application forms should be compatible with the num-ber of beneficiaries.

All application forms should have serial numbers but those application forms issued arbitrarily having no serial numbers would not be valid.

The number of NFSA be-neficiaries of Manipur would be 87 per cent of the total po-pulation recorded in the 2011 census report.

Selected list of NFSA beneficiaries would be put in public domain for seven days.

If there is any error in the list, complaints may be made within the seven days.

The concerned authority would examine all such complaints and rectify errors, if there is any.

Although the State Government has been working hard to implement NFSA by March 31, it is still not an easy task.

Tender process for selection of district transporters has not been completed till date, added the official.

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