Patna: The Bihar government on Thursday said all new applications for ration cards will be disposed of by July 31 to clear decks for providing food-grains to all eligible beneficiaries in Bihar under the Food Security Act.
Besides, 49 lakh additional claims for ration cards have been received and it will be disposed of by July 31, the Food and Consumer Protection Minister Shyam Rajak said while replying to a special debate in the Legislative Assembly.
He said his Department will continue to receive additional applications for claiming subsidized foodgrains so that nobody gets left out from benefits under the central act.
Earlier, the JD(U) MLA Manjit Singh had raised various questions related to implementation of the Food Security Act in Bihar after moving a call attention notice to which the Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary, after giving due consideration, allowed a special debate under Rule 94 of the assembly procedure in the post-lunch session.
Participating in the debate, the Leader of Opposition Nandkishore Yadav hit out at the state government for implementing the food security act in Bihar without doing proper homework and issuing new ration cards to the beneficiaries as a result of which over 1.35 eligible families were left out for entitlement of subsidized foodgrains.
As a result of the JD(U) government`s callous attitude, the poor families have been left out from the ambit of coverage under the central act for food to all beneficiaries, Yadav said and asked the government to first issue new ration cards to all beneficiarie before claiming implementation of the Food Security Act.
Senior RJD leader Durga Prasad Singh too said that no eligible families should be left out from coverage under the Food Security Act.
Replying to the half-an-hour debate at the fag-end of the
business of the day, Rajak said that the state government was sincere about implementation of the central act for food to all eligible beneficiaries in Bihar and added that the total number of those beneficiaries stood at 8.4 crore.
On the delay in providing subsidized foodgrain to the beneficiaries, the Food and Consumer Protection Minister sought to pass the buck to the Centre saying that out of 101 railway rakes that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) had promised to send to Bihar with foodgrain quota till May this year, only 60 rakes have reached.
As Rajak sought to wind up his speech promising to implement the Food Security Act with all sincerity in Bihar, all hell broke loose in the assembly with the Finance Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav slamming the opposition BJP lawmakers for habitually obstructing the JD(U) ministers from speaking and boycotting their replies and threatened that the ruling party MLAs will give in kind if the opposition benches persisted with their unparliamentary and undemocratic tactics.
The Minister`s remarks evoked sharp response from the BJP MLAs who trooped into the well of the House and raised slogans against the state government and the minister.
Amid the din, the Speaker ordered removal of an unparliamentary word used by the finance minister before adjourning the House till tomorrow.
