OREANDA-NEWS. There is no proposal under consideration of the Government to exclude taxpayers and Government employees from the purview of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). This information was given by the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Raosaheb Patil Danve in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

The Minister said that the Government of India has notified the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) on 10.09.2013, under which State Governments/Union Territory (UT) Administrations are required to evolve the criteria for identification of priority households and conduct their actual identification, within the coverage determined for each State/UT, for receiving subsidised foodgrains under TPDS.

He said that during a Conference of Ministers of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution of States/UTs, held on 04.07.2014 to inter alia review the implementation of NFSA, it was suggested that though the criteria for identification of households is to be evolved by States/UTs, while identifying the eligible households they should ensure that Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe households are included, except those in Government service, public sector undertakings or autonomous institutions or income tax payers.