The empowered Group of Ministers on food security, scheduled to meet tomorrow, will have to walk a tightrope in trying to fulfill the ‘food for all’ promise made by the Congress party in its election manifesto. Not only is the government hamstrung by its inability to sustain procurement levels of of 50 million tonnes of foodgrains every year required to feed all poor — below poverty line (BPL) and above...
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‘Rajasthan move a violation of Supreme Court order'
State Government reduces wheat quota to 25 kg from 35 kg Human rights groups have challenged the Rajasthan Government's latest initiative to provide wheat at the rate of Rs.2 per kg to the 27 lakh-strong BPL families in the State pointing out that there is a catch in the move—that instead of the entitlement of 35 kg of wheat per BPL family every month, the quota has been brought down to...
More »More rice, wheat for ration card holders by Sangeeta Singh and Sanjiv Shankaran
An empowered group of ministers headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee decided to release an additional 500,000 tonnes of wheat and rice every month for sale to ration card holders for the next six months, according to agriculture minister Sharad Pawar. The move is aimed at reining in prices and curbing inflation and will cost the government an estimated Rs2,000 crore. The group met on Wednesday to discuss foodgrain availability...
More »Food subsidy bill likely to rise by Rs 6,000 cr in FY11 by Prabha Jagannathan
THE government will need to shell out Rs 6,000 crore more in food subsidy to support poor families under the proposed Food Security Act due to the revised estimate of the number of poor families in the country. Food subsidy will account for about 1.1% of the gross domestic product in the current fiscal year, compared with 0.9% last year, said a study by Deutche Bank. The Union budget has...
More »Costly APL grain to rein in subsidy? by Mahendra K Singh & Nitin Sethi
Even as the government tries to meet the expectations of the Congress high command on the Food Security Bill, it is still trying tricks in the economist's books to keep its food subsidy bill as low as possible. While the Planning Commission has now accepted that it would include community kitchens and existing nutrition security schemes such as ICDS and mid-day meal programmes under the proposed Bill, it is also...
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