Patro urges Paswan to raise ceiling for NFSA beneficiaries

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Surya Narayan Patro on Thursday urged the Centre to increase the upper ceiling of beneficiaries for Odisha under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

In his letter to Union Minister of Consumer Affairs Ram Vilas Paswan, the Minister pointed out that the Centre had fixed the upper ceiling for Odisha with reference to the NSS Household Consumption Survey data for 2011-12. However, there has been an increase of around 4-5% in population of the State during these six years. Hence, the Union government should increase the upper ceiling of beneficiaries for the state by 15 lakh individuals.

As per the NFSA, the beneficiaries get five kilograms of either rice or wheat at a cost of Rs 3/kg and Rs 2/kg respectively.