Guwahati, Oct 19: The Assam government has written to the Centre seeking its approval to implement the National Food Security Act, 2013, in the state from November 1.

In a letter sent on Saturday, the Assam government told the Centre that it had taken all necessary steps prescribed by the act and was ready to implement it from the next month.

Furnishing a preparedness report, Dispur has sought New Delhi's nod.

The UPA government had notified the Food Security Act in 2013 and it came into effect from July last year. But the Narendra Modi government has postponed its implementation thrice. The Centre was criticised by the Supreme Court last month for this delay. The court asked the Centre to explain its failure to implement the programme, which is estimated to cost Rs 1.25 lakh crore a year.

Up to 75 per cent of the rural population and around 50 per cent of the urban population is likely to be eligible for subsidized food grains under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), thus covering two-thirds of the country's population.

Eligible persons will be entitled to 5kg of food grains per person per month at subsidised prices of Rs 3, Rs 2 and Rs 1 per kg for rice, wheat and coarse grains respectively. However, in Assam, only rice will be provided under the act.

The Assam government has finished the process of identifying households that will receive benefits, official sources said.

"Besides identifying the households, we are also ready for doorstep delivery of food grains in the TDPS outlets (ration shops). In fact, we have started a trial run of the process from this month," a source said.

Through this initiative, the state will also deliver the food grains directly to ration shops - instead of asking the outlets to collect them from government godowns. This step has been taken because many ration shops charge exorbitant amounts as transportation expenditure to the beneficiaries.

The state government has also put in place an internal system to address the grievances of the beneficiaries. It has informed the Centre that the National Informatics Centre has customised the system, which will be put in the public domain as soon as its security audit is complete.

The NIC, which is working through the Assam Electronics Development Corporation Limited (Amtron), was supposed to give the clearance of the security audit last month but has failed to do so.

The state government also informed the Centre that it has appointed nodal officers, district grievance redressal officers and set up a state food commission to implement the act.

The process of distributing ration cards to beneficiaries is expected to be completed by tomorrow. The process of digitising the cards was completed in July - except in Dima Hasao district where allocation of excess number of beneficiaries had led to a delay.