'Steps being taken to implement Food Security Act in UP'

Lucknow, Nov 21: On a day

staged protest for implementation of the food security scheme in

, the state government on Thursday said it has prepared a road map to implement the National

Security Act and a cell has also been formed in the Food Commissioner's office to work on it.

Principal Secretary Food and Civil supplies, Deepak Trivedi said steps have already been initiated on the provisions of the Food Security Act and action is being taken on them.

He said a steering committee chaired by the Chief Secretary has also been formed in which the Food Commissioner has been made Coordinator and the principal secretary and secretary of departments concerned have been made members.

For daily monitoring of the activities of the cell in Food Commissioner headquarters, an IAS officer has been posted, he said, adding that a state food commission would also be set up soon for effective implementation and monitoring of the act.

The Principal Secretary said for implementing the Food Security Act, the Centre had made mandatory identifying of families in the light of social, economic and caste census 2013 data and since the Centre has set a target to identify eligible households till July 2014 and all districts have still not completed the task, the work is getting affected.

The District Collectors of the respective districts have been given strict instructions to provide top priority to complete this task.

100 Congressmen were arrested as police baton charged protesting workers.

Trivedi said for effective implementation of the Food Security Act, four nodal officers have been appointed and the information relating to ration cards and verification has been given to NIC and it will be completed by November 30.

The Principal Secretary said to ensure that there was no shortage of funds in following the provisions of the Act, arrangement has been made in the supplementary budget.

100 Congressmen, including senior leaders, were arrested as police baton charged a mob of party workers trying to forcibly enter the Uttar Pradesh Assembly premises during their protest to press for speedy implementation of food security scheme in the state.

Several party activists and media persons were injured in the lathi-charge by police, Congress leaders said.

PTI