In the season of draft Bills, the Sonia Gandhi-LED National Advisory Council has come out with its draft of the National Food Security Act, 2011, that gives legal backing to the highly leaky PDS system, thereby excluding innovative options like cash transfers, which may have included variants like food stamps and UID-linked smart cards. Despite the PM’s panel objecting to universal legal entitlement, the draft says that “not less than 90%...

Differences between United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi-LED National Advisory Council (NAC) and the government over the coverage of the proposed Food Security Act refuses to die. NAC recently came out with its own draft on the Food Security Bill sticking to its position after the food ministry’s draft diluted the Council’s recommendations on coverage of families in rural areas. The NAC draft has maintained the coverage of 90 per...

-The Times of India   Delhi high court has sought a reply from the Delhi government and the education director on a physically challenged person's plea seeking amendment in the RTE Act to include a quota for the children of such people. HC issued notices to the authorities concerned on a petition fiLED by one Hilal Haider praying that there were deficiencies in the RTE Act that needed clarification. On his...

-NDTV   Civil society members of the Lokpal Bill drafting committee are to meet today after sulking for a day, over the events surrounding Baba Ramdev's eviction from his protest fast at the Ramlila Maidan on Sunday. Terming the incidents at the Ramlila Maidan as the reason for their boycott on Monday, the five-member team of civil society representatives LED by Gandhian Anna Hazare condemned the Centre for the midnight police action on...

-The Telegraph   The Left parties have refused to answer government questionnaires on the Lok Pal bill, a stance that arrays them alongside the BJP in trying to corner the Congress-LED UPA over corruption. CPM general secretary Prakash Karat has written to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee saying his party cannot give its views on the six questionnaires, to be answered in yes-or-no terms. The format even prompted CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan to...