Right to Food Campaign demands a universal PDS “It is a dishonest proposal of the government” The Right of Food Campaign has charged the Central government with lack of commitment in providing food and nutrition security to citizens with its reported decision to revise the issue prices of wheat and rice for the Above Poverty Line (APL) category of beneficiaries in the Public Distribution System (PDS). “This is the first step to finish...

The Centre on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it had released 25 lakh tonnes of foodgrains to the States for distribution under the Public Distribution System, over and above 25 lakh tonnes made available in September 2010 for below the poverty line and above the poverty line families. Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati made this statement before a Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma during the hearing of a petition...

Government’s food subsidy bill is expected to swell to around Rs 81,000 crore in the current financial year, up from the Budget estimate of around Rs 68,000 crore for 2010-11 because of higher cost of procurement of wheat and rice and increased allocations to below poverty line and above poverty line families in the current financial year, official sources said. The 19% estimated increase in food subsidy also includes those part...

The Experts Group chaired by the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council Chairman, C. Rangarajan, favours mandatory entitlement of subsidised foodgrains to the ‘priority' category (Below the Poverty Line) as recommended by the National Advisory Council (NAC). But the Group does not think that it is feasible to extend to the ‘general' category (Above the Poverty Line) legal entitlement of subsidised foodgrains under the Public Distribution System (PDS). The panel has suggested...

This allocation is in addition to 25 lakh tonnes of grains released for BPL population in August Ban on export of pulses and permission to import pulses at zero duty to continue till March 2012 The Centre on Tuesday announced an additional allocation of five million tonnes of wheat and rice to States for distribution to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL) beneficiaries through the Targeted Public Distribution...