Odisha has been adjudged the top ranked State followed by Uttar Pradesh at the 2nd spot and Andhra Pradesh at third amongst the General Category States in ‘State Ranking Index for NFSA’.
Among the Special Category states/UTs, Tripura stood first followed by Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim respectively. Further, among the 3 UTs where Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT)- Cash is operational, Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu is the top ranked UT.
The National Food Security Act (NFSA) was enacted on July 5, 2013 and in order to celebrate the day, the conference was organized to deliberate and discuss nutritional security, food security, best practices followed in Public Distribution System, crop diversification, reforms in PDS and storage sector.
Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Textiles and Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal released the 1st edition of ‘State Ranking Index for NFSA’ during the conference of Food Ministers of States/UTs on ‘Food Nutrition and Security in India’ organized by Department of Food and Public Distribution here today.
Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, along with Secretary DFPD, Shri Sudhanshu Pandey along with Food Ministers and senior officials of 8 states were present at the daylong conference.
This “State ranking Index for NFSA” attempts to document the status and progress of implementation of NFSA and various reform initiatives across the country, post consultation with states. It highlights the reforms undertaken by States and UTs and create a cross-learning environment and scale-up reform measures by all states and union territories.
The present Index is largely focused on NFSA Distribution and will include procurement, PMGKAY Distribution in future.
The Index for ranking the states and UTs is built on three key pillars which covers the end-to-end implementation of NFSA through TPDS. These pillars are: i) NFSA— Coverage, targeting and provisions of the Act, ii) Delivery platform, and iii) Nutrition initiatives. The detailed list of the States is at Annexure-I.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Goyal said that India is now 100% connected under One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC).
He complemented PM Narendra Modi for visualizing this pathbreaking initiative and all those associated with it.
He said that 45 crore transitions have taken so far providing the beneficiaries the freedom to collect ration from any State/UT in the country. He said that during COVID, ONORC supported migrants.
Goyal said that going forward, the system of digitized, Aadhaar linked Public Distribution will be used to issue Ayushman Bharat Card.
He mentioned that Uttar Pradesh is using the system to issue Ayushman Bharat card.
He urged other states to consider this system to provide nutritional security as well as health security., the official note of Ministry of Food Processing Industries said.
He said that immunization of migrant kids can also be linked with the system to ensure medical facility to them.
