By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : Minister of State for Agriculture K.V. Thomas Sunday said implementing the proposed Food Security Act by the UPA government would be more challenging than the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.
Addressing reporters here, Thomas said the United Progressive Alliance government has included this Act to become a law within the first 100 days of the government assuming office.
“But this is a huge challenge because the first concern is that the definition of Below Poverty Line (BPL) has to be clearly made, then comes the issue of financial commitment involved and then the adequate food grain storage to see that this is implemented properly,” said Thomas.
The act, one of the main agendas of the UPA government, is to see that every BPL card holder gets 25 kg of either rice or wheat at Rs.3 a kg every month.
“We have already begun working towards this and soon there is going to be a brain storming session with different departments and also the state governments on this,” he said.
He also added that the fisheries sector has now been added to his portfolio, which has been a long-standing demand from several quarters.
“This sector has a lot of issues. It earlier came under different central ministries. This is the first time fisheries has been included as a portfolio under the agriculture ministry,” he said.