Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
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Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

            } else {
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		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Killed by the Food Bill by Nitin Sethi&#039;,
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &amp;hellip; &amp;ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&amp;rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &amp;mdash; this is the problem of excess. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &amp;mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHILE THE GRAINS ROT &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Thirty percent of India&amp;rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition&lt;br /&gt;
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At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;font &gt;At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &amp;hellip; &amp;ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&amp;rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &amp;mdash; this is the problem of excess. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &amp;mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;WHILE THE GRAINS ROT &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Thirty percent of India&amp;rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
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	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Killed by the Food Bill by Nitin Sethi&#039;,
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&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &amp;hellip; &amp;ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&amp;rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &amp;mdash; this is the problem of excess. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &amp;mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHILE THE GRAINS ROT &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Thirty percent of India&amp;rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/font&gt;
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At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;font &gt;At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &amp;hellip; &amp;ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&amp;rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &amp;mdash; this is the problem of excess. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. 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The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;WHILE THE GRAINS ROT &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Thirty percent of India&amp;rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
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                <strong>Killed by the Food Bill by Nitin Sethi</strong></h1>
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                <p align="justify"><font ></font></p><p align="justify"><br /><font >At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &hellip; &ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&hellip;&rdquo; </font></p><p align="justify"><font >In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &mdash; this is the problem of excess. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. </font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>WHILE THE GRAINS ROT </em></font></p><p align="justify"><font >India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Thirty percent of India&rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition<br /></font></p>               </font>
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&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &amp;hellip; &amp;ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&amp;rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &amp;mdash; this is the problem of excess. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &amp;mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHILE THE GRAINS ROT &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Thirty percent of India&amp;rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/font&gt;
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At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;font &gt;At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &amp;hellip; &amp;ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&amp;rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &amp;mdash; this is the problem of excess. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &amp;mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;WHILE THE GRAINS ROT &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Thirty percent of India&amp;rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
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	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 2864,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Killed by the Food Bill by Nitin Sethi&#039;,
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	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
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&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &amp;hellip; &amp;ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&amp;rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &amp;mdash; this is the problem of excess. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &amp;mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHILE THE GRAINS ROT &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Thirty percent of India&amp;rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
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At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;font &gt;At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &amp;hellip; &amp;ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&amp;rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &amp;mdash; this is the problem of excess. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. 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The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. 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In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
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At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the..."/>
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                <strong>Killed by the Food Bill by Nitin Sethi</strong></h1>
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                <p align="justify"><font ></font></p><p align="justify"><br /><font >At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &hellip; &ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&hellip;&rdquo; </font></p><p align="justify"><font >In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &mdash; this is the problem of excess. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. </font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>WHILE THE GRAINS ROT </em></font></p><p align="justify"><font >India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Thirty percent of India&rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition<br /></font></p>               </font>
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &amp;hellip; &amp;ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&amp;rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &amp;mdash; this is the problem of excess. &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &amp;mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHILE THE GRAINS ROT &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Thirty percent of India&amp;rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa &lt;/font&gt;
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&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition&lt;br /&gt;
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At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;font &gt;At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &amp;hellip; &amp;ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&amp;rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &amp;mdash; this is the problem of excess. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &amp;mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;WHILE THE GRAINS ROT &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Thirty percent of India&amp;rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;,
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	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 2864,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;Killed by the Food Bill by Nitin Sethi&#039;,
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	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
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&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &amp;hellip; &amp;ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&amp;rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &amp;mdash; this is the problem of excess. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &amp;mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;WHILE THE GRAINS ROT &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Thirty percent of India&amp;rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa &lt;/font&gt;
&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;font face=&quot;arial,helvetica,sans-serif&quot; size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/font&gt;
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At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;font &gt;At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &amp;hellip; &amp;ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&amp;rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &amp;mdash; this is the problem of excess. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &amp;mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;&lt;em&gt;WHILE THE GRAINS ROT &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;Thirty percent of India&amp;rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;font &gt;The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&#039;
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                <strong>Killed by the Food Bill by Nitin Sethi</strong></h1>
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                <p align="justify"><font ></font></p><p align="justify"><br /><font >At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &hellip; &ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&hellip;&rdquo; </font></p><p align="justify"><font >In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &mdash; this is the problem of excess. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. </font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>WHILE THE GRAINS ROT </em></font></p><p align="justify"><font >India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Thirty percent of India&rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition<br /></font></p>               </font>
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<br />
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &hellip; &ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&hellip;&rdquo; </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &mdash; this is the problem of excess. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3"><em>WHILE THE GRAINS ROT </em></font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Thirty percent of India&rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition<br />
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At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the...',
	'disp' => '<p align="justify"><font ></font></p><p align="justify"><br /><font >At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &hellip; &ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&hellip;&rdquo; </font></p><p align="justify"><font >In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &mdash; this is the problem of excess. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. </font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>WHILE THE GRAINS ROT </em></font></p><p align="justify"><font >India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Thirty percent of India&rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition<br /></font></p>',
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	'title' => 'Killed by the Food Bill by Nitin Sethi',
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<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3"></font>
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<p align="justify">
<br />
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &hellip; &ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&hellip;&rdquo; </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &mdash; this is the problem of excess. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3"><em>WHILE THE GRAINS ROT </em></font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Thirty percent of India&rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa </font>
</p>
<p align="justify">
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition<br />
</font>
</p>',
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At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the...'
$disp = '<p align="justify"><font ></font></p><p align="justify"><br /><font >At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the &hellip; &ldquo;government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it&hellip;&rdquo; </font></p><p align="justify"><font >In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It&rsquo;s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 &mdash; this is the problem of excess. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor &mdash; this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. </font></p><p align="justify"><font >While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. </font></p><p align="justify"><font ><em>WHILE THE GRAINS ROT </em></font></p><p align="justify"><font >India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world </font></p><p align="justify"><font >Thirty percent of India&rsquo;s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa </font></p><p align="justify"><font >The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition<br /></font></p>'
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Killed by the Food Bill by Nitin Sethi

At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. The Supreme Court in its last hearing had directed that the … “government may consider releasing the food to the people who deserve it…” In its reply, the UPA government on Thursday has said that even as 178 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of foodgrain sits out in the open covered by nothing more than polythene sheets it would not alter the current distribution regime till the NFSA has come through. Anyone who knows the legislative process in India would know that the bill could take at least one year to come through. The government has admitted to only 49,000 tonnes of food grains having rotted so far. But it has not told the real story. In Punjab alone, 1.36 lakh MT of wheat has been lying in the open since 2008-09. Another 27.38 lakh MT of wheat has been exposed to the vagaries of nature the previous year. State agencies in Haryana are holding 31,574 MTs of foodgrain procured in 2008-09 and 18.90 lakh MTs of food grain procured in 2009-10. The government internally accepts that foodgrain that are stored in the open do not last more than a year. At this rate, considering there is going to be a normal monsoon in the foodbowl states, by next year the government, if is honest, it should say that it let these mountains of grain also rot. The government is faced with two peculiar problems. An excess of grains and a deficit of political desire to spend on the poor. By March 2010, the stock holding of the government for the buffer and strategic reserve norms had reached 478 lakh MTs as against the norm of 212 lakh MTs. By June 2010, the stocks had risen to a record level of 608.79 lakh metric tonnes (MTs). It’s the highest the government has been able to procure and keep since 2002 — this is the problem of excess. At present, the government provides subsidized grains to only 27% of the population. Worse still, the Union government is using a decade-old population figures! Accordingly, only 6.52 crore families get 35 kg of food grains at subsidized price. If one takes the estimated 2010 population then a rather simple calculation would show that there are actually 8.5 crore poor families in the country. But a powerful section of the UPA continues to be more bothered about paring its subsidy bill than feeding the poor — this is the deficit of political will that allows almost 2 crore families to not get cheap food even as lakhs of tonne of grains rot in government godowns. The Union government gives 35 kg of subsidized grain per family to the state only for the 6.52 crore families. The states having to deal with the reality of a greater number of poor are left with no option but to either pare the amount of food it gives to the poor or buy the costlier foodgrain on the above-poverty-line quota and then give it the poor at its own cost. The states have to cater to 10.68 crore families. Not that they are doing any better. The Union government in January allocated an extra 25.45 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10.62 lakh tonnes of rice to state governments at a subsidized price. Shockingly, they bought only 4.60 lakh tonnes of wheat and 5.34 lakh tonnes of rice. In May, the Centre lowered the price yet further and made a fresh allocation of 16.87 lakh tonnes of wheat and 13.80 lakh tonnes of rice to states. So far, the states have picked merely a tenth of this. The National Advisory Council in its previous meeting on the Food Security Act had decided that almost everyone except for the elite in the poorest 150 districts in the country would be given subsidized grains. While the act will take its time, all it would take is a decision by UPA to start this right away by providing grains to the 150 districts currently under the National Food for Work Programme. Or it could simply increase allocation to all states. WHILE THE GRAINS ROT India has child malnutrition rate of 46%, according to the National Family Health Survey 3 (2006) Between NFHS 2 (1999) and NFHS 3 (2006), India registered a decline in child malnutrition of just 1% Child malnutrition in India is twice that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is one of the poorest regions in the world Thirty percent of India’s children are born with a low birth weight and this proportion is twice the average for Africa The World Health Organisation estimates that 60% of all infant mortality can be directly attributed to child malnutrition. In India, 1.5 million children are dying every year due to causes directly linked to child malnutrition