-PTI   Approximately 68 million Indians are living in slums, according to a government census. Releasing the first such census report on slum households prepared by the Registrar General of India, Union Housing and Urban Poverty alleviation minister Ajay Maken today said that majority of them were located in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Presenting the highlights of the report, Census Commissioner C Chandramouli said,...

-The Hindu Despite severe opposition from civil society groups, the Union government has decided to cut the entitlement of a beneficiary to subsidised grain from 7 kg a month (as provided in the National Food Security Bill) to 5 kg under the Public Distribution System, as recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Food. But it will continue providing the 2.3 crore beneficiaries of the Antyodaya Anna Yojna (the poorest of the...

-The Indian Express The annual subsidy bill for the UPA’s proposed food guarantee law has been estimated at Rs 1,24,747.1 crore, 38.6 per cent over the budgeted food subsidy of Rs 90,000 crore for next year. An alarmed finance ministry is learnt to have red-flagged some major changes proposed in the original National Food Security Bill, sources said. It has objected to the proposal to do away with the original categorisation of beneficiaries...

-The Hindu Asks municipal bodies to halt vendor eviction drives Union Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ajay Maken on Wednesday said the much-awaited Street Vendors (Livelihood Protection and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill will be passed in the current session of Parliament. He was speaking at the street vendors’ Parliament, organised by the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI), at Jantar Mantar here to press for the enactment of...

-Live Mint The Street Vendors Bill, 2012, is the first attempt to regulate urban street hawkers India’s more than 10 million street vendors should be registered on the basis of their Aadhaar numbers to ensure proper identification, a standing committee has recommended in its report on the Street Vendors Bill, 2012. “The Aadhaar card may be linked towards identification of street vendors,” the panel said in the report it submitted to the Lok...