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There is no dearth of
Government policies ensuring
food security |
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U.P.Samachar Sewa |
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Publised
on : 28 April 2016, Last
updated Time 20:28 |
 New
Delhi,The NHRC Chairperson, Mr. Justice H.L. Dattu
today said that there is no dearth of Government
policies and programmes for ensuring food for all in
the country. Questions can be raised only about their
effective implementation. He was inaugurating a
two-day National Conference on Right to Food organized
by the Commission in New Delhi. Appreciating the
improvement in food grains production, he said that
it’s stocking and distribution among the needy
continues to remain a concern.
The NHRC Chairperson said that the National Food
Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) is a comprehensive document
ensuring food security, primarily, for the poor in
normal circumstances but natural calamities, like
drought, affect all, irrespective of their economic
and social status. It needs to be discussed as to what
extent the efforts to check the leakages in the
Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) have been
effective as well as the impact of efforts like
Transferring of Direct Subsidy. Problems of
malnourishment, particularly, among women and children
and falling levels of calorie consumption need to be
reviewed in view of the impact of the measures taken
up to address them.
Justice Dattu said that NFSA has to be read and
studied with our agricultural practices and the
challenges facing them in the wake of falling ground
water levels, at a rapid speed, causing an alarming
situation of drought in several districts of the
country. Failed monsoon is severally affecting our
agriculture, which is heavily dependent on the
vagaries of the weather. The issue of crop rotation to
conserve soil and water levels as well as our food
requirements need to be addressed with a missionary
zeal.
The NHRC Chairperson said that the ultimate goal of
the NFSA, integrated with various social-welfare
schemes, should be that nobody sleeps without food or
falls prey to begging for it. And it is not only for
the governments but for all the sections of society to
work towards ensuring that programmes and schemes
towards ensuring food for all are implemented in right
earnest. People must stop thinking of the Government
as a separate entity from them. They should be
watchdogs of the welfare schemes instead of falling
prey to the allurements of pilferage.
Justice Dattu said that while looking into the big
issue of shortage of storage facilities, the issue of
distantly located Fair Price Shops cannot be looked
away. The nation is already battling the issue of
paucity of nearby markets for the farmers to sell
their produce, lack of quality roads and transport to
shift their produce to distant mandis and storage
facilities to save the produce from rotting.
He said that it pains to know that food grains worth
Rs.92 thousand crore goes to waste every year. If
every Section of the NFSA is implemented sincerely, he
said, there is no reason why a food sufficient country
like India cannot ensure the same for all its people.
Earlier, the Union Secretary, Department of Food and
Public Distribution, Ms. Vrinda Swaroop, expressed
happiness over the proactive action taken by the
States and Union Territories for implementing the
National Food Security Act, 2013. With reference to
several parts of country facing drought, she said that
the Government has sufficient stock of food grains to
supply them to natural calamity hit States over and
above their requirements under National Food Security
Act.
The NHRC Secretary General, Mr. S. N. Mohanty said
that the Commission has maintained that Right to Food
is intrinsic to living a life with dignity and it is
committed to suggesting measures to the Government on
food security for all.
The two-day discussions, divided into four thematic
sessions, will have participation from the NHRC
Members and senior officers, senior officers from the
Union Ministries, States and Union Territories dealing
with the subject, Members of NHRC’s Core Advisory
Group on right to Food, representatives of other
National and State Commissions, technical
institutions, international organizations,
non-governmental and civil society organizations
working at the grassroots and subject experts.
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News
source: UP Samachar Sewa |
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