Sharp differences persist in the government over whether and how much of an impact the impending food law is likely to have on open market food prices. At a time when input costs for farmers have already gone up significantly and threaten volatility in food prices, the food ministry has dismissed apprehensions voiced by Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices ( CACP) chairman Ashok Gulati on the issue. Last week,...

The Posco Pratirodhaka Sangram Samiti (PPSS) president slammed BJD Rajya Sabha member Baishnab Parida on Saturday for commenting in the Parliament on Friday that large numbers of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh were hand-in-glove with anti-land acquisition leaders to oppose the proposed steel plant construction in the seaside villages of Jagatsinghpur district. "Not a single Bangladeshi is residing in three gram panchayats of Dhinkia, Gadakujang and Nuagaon areas," said PPSS president...

Draft Bill on land acquisition pegs compensation on market value but how government agencies will reach this value remains a concern In response to farmers’ agitation in the last few years over faulty land acquisition and poor compensation—the Tata-Singur fiasco in West Bengal, Posco in Orissa or the recent farmers’ agitation in Noida—the ministry of rural development is planning to replace the archaic Land Acquisition Bill, 1894. It has come up...

-IANS   Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Sunday said the food security Bill in its current form will curtail the food security as it caters to certain sections of society. "This will not be a good food security legislation as they are trying to restrict the food security to certain sections of society. They have already given a quota - 46% of the population in rural areas...

-IANS   The draft National Food Security Bill, which has been approved by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), has scant regard for children and does not assure their right to food security, activists of the Right to Food campaign said Monday. "It appears that the government does not consider the specific issues related to the food security of children, who form about 40 percent of the population, or the vast problem...