Bhubaneswar, July 7 (IANS): The Odisha government would implement the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, in the state by September 30 as fixed by the Centre, said Food and Consumer Welfare Minister Sanjay Dasburma on Tuesday.

"We have initiated the process for identification of the priority households by approving eight exclusion and five auto-inclusion criteria. The identification process of eligible households is in the final stage," said Dasburma at the conference of state food and consumer affairs ministers at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, according to official release here.

Digitization of 104.25 lakh applications has been completed so far, the Minister said, adding that the final priority list of eligible beneficiaries will be made available in public domain by August 31.

He also requested the Centre to increase the rice coverage to cover 4.73 lakh boarders of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes hostels run by the state government.