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

According to an officer from the department, the presentation made was open to changes based on suggestions and objections raised by elected representatives.

Developed districts like Aurangabad, Jalgaon and Nagpur will have highest exclusion rate, however in Thane, 12.19 lakh from rural and 14.36 lakh from urban population will be included.

According to Sudhir Mungantiwar, a BJP leader, the exclusion of rural population is not a right move and his party would protest against this. He further stated that in Naxal hit area like Bhamaragad in Gadchiroli district,  95 percent comes under this scheme. It is time the government looks into the matter and ensures none of these families are excluded in the FSP.

The state is also said to bare expenses of 95 crore for replacing existing ration cards with the new bar-coded cards.

The officer from the department said, “However, the burden of implementing the FSP on the state government will be robust. Apart from the annul expenditure of Rs600 crore towards transportation, distribution and handling, the government will also have to bear Rs85 crore towards filling 1,735 posts currently vacant in the department and Rs38 crore towards the expenditure on 792 posts in state- and district-level food security commission.”