Nearly 80 Lakh People from Maharashtra Might be Excluded from Food Security Scheme

Bangalore: The world's largest welfare scheme, ‘Food Security Bill’ guarantees highly subsidized food grains to two-thirds of the population. But, taking into account the strenuous task of registering beneficiaries, storage of food grains and distribution, the food and civil supplies department of the Mumbai state government, is seeking some revisions in the eligibility criteria.

The department has raised a demand to exclude  families with an annual income of Rs 1 lakh from the scheme. If the demand gets fulfilled, then the food and security programme(FSP) will not consider around 77.93 lakh ration card holders in Mumbai, Thane and its surrounding cities.

It’s not just families with an annual income of Rs1 lakh who might to be excluded from the scheme; government employees, official contractors of the government, families with one or more members paying taxes, families that own more than 1 hectare land, and families that have three- or four-wheelers, will not get any benefits. The officials feel this would result in exclusion of 1.52 crore card holders in rural and urban areas.