Expressing 'deep distress' over the 'shameful practice of manual scavenging' in the country, the National Advisory Council, headed by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Saturday asked the government to 'fully abolish' it by the end of 2012. It observed that despite the practice of employing scavengers being declared an offence, no one has been punished for it. The issue is seen as 'an issue of sanitation than of issue of human dignity,'...

The rift between the National Advisory Council (nac) members and the government, especially the Planning Commission and the PMO, came out in the open on Saturday with Jean Dreze dissenting against the pruning of the think tank's earlier proposals on National Food Security Bill. The simmering anger among members of the council, who have also spearheaded the Right-to-Food campaign, had been palpable over the past four months with the government wanting...

The framework for food security, cleared by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council on Saturday, if implemented, will entail an additional expenditure of Rs.15,137 crore annually in the first phase. It is slated to kick off next year and will cost Rs. 23,231 crore annually when the entire population is covered by March 2014. Assuming an offtake of 85-90 per cent, the procurement will have to go up from 55 million...

After the National Advisory Council (nac) cleared the food security framework on Saturday, council member and development economist Jean Drèze issued a dissent note saying that “an opportunity [had] been missed to initiate a radical departure in this field.” “The nac proposals [are] a great victory for the government — they allow it to appear to be doing something radical for food security, but it is actually more of the same,”...

The sixth meeting of the National Advisory Council, chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Saturday finalised its recommendations to address the problems of hunger and malnutrition in the country. Some of the important recommendations: - Legal entitlements to subsidised foodgrains should be extended to 90 percent rural population and 50 percent urban population. - The priority households should have a monthly entitlement of 35 kg at a subsidised price of Re.1 per kg...