The food ministry on Wednesday asked states, including UP, West Bengal, Gujarat, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, to roll out the National Food Security Act (NFSA) by March 2015 or else they would have to buy foodgrains meant for above poverty line (APL) families at the minimum support price (MSP) given to farmers.

For distribution of foodgrains to APL families through Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), the food ministry provides foodgrains at R6 per kg for wheat and R8 per kg for rice. While NFSA envisages providing foodgrains at R2 per kg and R3 per kg for rice and wheat respectively to all the targeted beneficiaries.

Eleven states and Union territories — Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi and Chandigarh — have so far implemented the Act, some fully and others partially.

However, many of the larger states, including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with a substantial poor population, are yet to take the plunge.

“We have asked 25 states to expedite implementation of food law. We have given a warning that if they fail to meet April deadline, the Centre will stop supply of subsidised APL foodgrains to them”, food minister Ram Vilas Paswan said .

Food ministry official said that there is no provision for supply of subsidised foodgrains to APL families under the new law and, therefore, the government has issued such a warning.

At present, the government is allocating foodgrains to 11 states or UTs as per the new food security law, while the rest 25 are getting foodgrains quota as per earlier TPDS norms.

“We have given time till February to states which have implemented partially to put in place requisite infrastructure. If digitisation of beneficiaries is not completed, we will supply foodgrains to the extent of the online list of beneficiaries,” Paswan said.

However, Jharkhand and Odisha have informed the food ministry that they will be able to roll out the food security legislation by only June and August, 2015, respectively.

Paswan said that Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh have assured that they will be able to roll out food security legislation by April, 2015.

“In Haryana, only less than 10% computerisation of TPDS has been done. In Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, no mechanism has been put in place for door step delivery of ration supply, while Madhya Pradesh has not yet completed Aadhaar card coverage,” Paswan said.

In October, the government had deferred the country-wide rollout of the NFSA, 2013 by another six months, to the first week of April 2015, because of states’ inability to create requisite infrastructure and identify beneficiaries.

This is the second time the government has deferred the pan-India roll-out of the Act, which envisages providing highly subsidised foodgrains to 84 crore people. The food security legislation was passed in Parliament in July last year and states were given a year’s time to complete the roll- out.