Guwahati, June 27: The online process to transfer foodgrain to wholesalers or ration shops under the National Food Security Act, 2013, in Assam has failed to take off because of technical glitches even six months after the act was implemented in the state.
Sources said the National Informatics Centre (NIC), which was in charge of providing software support to implement the scheme, could not develop a foolproof application through which the allotment of foodgrain would be made. In technical terms, the centre has not done its "security audit" to the application, Supply Allocation Order Generation. The application is also known as FEAST module.
"The state government is deeply concerned about it. The act was implemented in Assam in December last year. According to it (the act), online allotment of foodgrain should be done to bring transparency to the system. But we are stuck as the NIC is yet to do its security audit. We have written several times to the NIC to do the security audit," said the source.
Rajesh Prasad, commissioner and secretary of the food and civil supplies department of the state, took up the matter with Vrinda Sarup, secretary to the Union ministry of food and public distribution, this month.
He told Sarup that the issue has persisted even after the state chief secretary wrote to the director-general of NIC in October last year and took up the matter with the NIC after two months and in May again this year.
The source said the state government will not be able to submit utilisation certificates against the funds allotted for these works if the security audit is not done.
Prasad had requested for personal intervention of Sarup in the issue, stating that the new BJP-led government in the state has set up a target to implement the online allocation of foodgrain under the act in its 100-day action plan.
However, the Assam state unit of NIC brushed aside the complaint of the state government. Sources in the NIC said it had tried online allocation of foodgrain for three consecutive months starting December last year but failed as the data provided by the state government on some topics like wholesalers was wrong. The NIC even wrote to the state government to correct the data at its earliest.
Under the act, Assam gets around 1.3 lakh tonnes of rice every month to be distributed among the beneficiaries through public distribution shops at Rs 3 per kg. Unlike other states, Assam does not distribute wheat as it is primarily a rice-eating state.
Under the National Food Security Act, people whose income is more than Rs 1 lakh per annum are not entitled to hold ration cards.
Assam food and civil supplies minister Rihon Daimari recently requested people whose annual income is over Rs 1 lakh to surrender their ration cards.
"The minister made the appeal so that the benefits of the act reach the actual beneficiaries. But it is difficult to detect illegal possessors of ration cards," said an official of the state food and civil supplies department.
The UPA government notified the Act on September 10, 2013.
The Assam government had planned to implement the act in September 2014 but because of some problems it could do so only last year. Around 2.4 crore people get rice under the act in the state.
