Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday launched the food security scheme of the Odisha government through video conferencing at the State Secretariat here on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that there would be no dearth of money for the welfare of the poor in the state. “As the state government has been utilising the money of the people for their socio-economic development, it will not allow the poor to be deprived of food under its food security scheme,” he maintained.
He further said that lakhs of beneficiaries, who were left out of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), had requested the state government to make them avail the benefit of the food security scheme. “I am very happy that the state government has been able to keep its promise to these beneficiaries by launching its own food security scheme,” he added.
About 15.74 lakh beneficiaries, who were left out of the Centre’s NFSA scheme in 2014, have been included under the state’s own food security scheme. Of these, 4.48 lakh are from western Odisha. The state government has a target to include 25 lakh beneficiaries under its scheme by March next year.
The beneficiaries of all the districts were contacted through video conferencing.
Special functions for this scheme were held at Khunta block in Mayurbhanj, Bangomunda block in Balangir, Rajgangpur block in Sundargarh and Jaleswar block in Balasore. The beneficiaries of these
blocks interacted with the Chief Minister and thanked him for launching the scheme.
