Six more states to implement food law

Six more laggard states on Tuesday assured the Centre of implementing the landmark national food security law by coming September while 16 others promised to follow suit by December.

The food security law, a model legislation of the previous UPA government, aims to provide highly subsidised food grains to 67 per cent of the country’s targeted population.

Since the passage of the Act in 2013, as many as 12 states/union territories have implemented the law while 24 states/union territories were racing to computerise their public distribution syste.

The states were supposed to implement the food law by July last year but lack of preparedness by most states forced the Modi government to extend the deadline thrice till September 4 this year. At a meeting convened by Food Minister Ramvilas Paswan on Tuesday to review the implementation of the food law, six more states/UTs – Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Kerala and Lakshadweep said they were ready to implement the law from September.