John Tanpuia, Deputy Director of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, however, said that there has been no replies from the Centre on many queries and explanations sought by the state government including profit margin for the retailers, cost of transportation and other modalities in implementing the scheme.
The Food Security Act, if implemented in the state would cover 64.30 per cent of the population of Mizoram as per the 2011 census, Tanpuia said, adding that only 7,06,296 people would be benefited by the new scheme.
The Centre had given several deadlines for implementation of the Food Security Act by the states, but this would be the last deadline, according to the instruction from the Government of India.
Earlier, state Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs minister John Rotluangliana informed the state assembly that implementation of the Food Security Scheme would lift the burden of the state government to provide rice for all the people of the state.
The heavy burden of subsidy to the state exchequer would also be lifted while many people in the state would suffer due to the implementation of the state, Rotluangliana said.