In a week when the central food ministry is reviewing the functioning of the much-maligned public distribution system (PDS) and plans to pull up laggard states on poor storage facilities, low grain offtake, high diversion and a persistently slacking programme, an objective relook at the world’s largest grain distribution system is imperative. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has time and again emphasised that streamlining the PDS in the usual-suspect states to...
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Dreze urges PM to keep cash out of food security Bill by Sreelatha Menon
A study on the Public Distribution System by a team led by National Advisory Council member and economist Jean Dreze found only 18 per cent of respondents in a survey, of 1,227 below-poverty line households over 106 villages in nine states, wanted cash in place of food under the system. The demand for cash transfers was highest in Bihar at 54 per cent, followed by 34 per cent in Uttar Pradesh...
More »Food Security Bill needs amendments by Brinda Karat
As it is drafted, the Bill actually deprives people, and the State governments, of existing rights on multiple counts. The Food Security Bill finalised by a Group of Ministers should not be accepted by Parliament in its present form. The overriding negative features of the proposed legislation far outweigh its positive initiatives. The framework itself is questionable since the Central government usurps all powers to decide the numbers, criteria and schemes...
More »UP babus loot Rs3,700cr rural health funds by Pravin Kumar & Shailvee Sharda
LUCKNOW: In Uttar Pradesh, over Rs 3,700 crore of central health funds may have been systematically looted over the past six years. Many people, including Rahul Gandhi, had spoken of the NRHM bungle, but the size of the scam indicates that not only were officials at the level of CMO and above involved, but also this could not have been carried out without the knowledge and support of their masters....
More »NREGA convergence with water storage & Krishi Vikas planned, says Jairam Ramesh
The Rural Development Ministry seems to be a familiar ground for Jairam Ramesh . No sooner was he given the new portfolio, he announced that the two bills related to land acquisition would be clubbed. The minister spells out his priorities in an exclusive interview with ET. Excerpts: What will be the key motif for the omnibus land acquisition law you are proposing? The bill will be facilitative not restrictive....
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