-Down to Earth The most controversial aspect of the food security law is the restructuring of the public distribution system to cover an unprecedented 67 per cent of the population, most of them in the poorer states. LATHA JISHNU, JYOTIKA SOOD and SUCHITRA M explain why there are winners and losers in the new dispensation and how states with better PDS will have to find huge resources to keep their numbers...
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'Food security bill to cover about 3-times the number of poor'
-PTI According to Planning Commission estimates, 21.9% of the people live below the poverty line in 2011-12. The food security programme is not restricted to the poor and the population covered by it is about three times the number of people below the poverty line, Parliament was told today. 'The government has decided to cover 67 per cent of the population under Food Security Act. The proposed coverage is not restricted to the...
More »In Gujarat, the PDS is exclusionary & leaky-Rukmini S
-The Hindu Many States have been improving their Public Distribution System over the last five years On Tuesday, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh criticising the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) for not being expansive enough. What Mr. Modi omitted to mention is that the same complaint could be made of the existing Public Distribution System (PDS) in his own state. The most significant difference between the PDS...
More »Food Bill: some States lose, some gain -Gargi Parsai
-The Hindu Among the 18 States which stand to lose are Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi, Uttarakhand and some north-eastern States. Even as the National Food Security Bill is pending in Parliament, the Centre has conveyed to certain States that their foodgrain allocation would decline in spite of the mandatory 75 per cent rural and 50 per cent urban populations being covered under the proposed new law. Among the 18 States which...
More »Food security coverage not restricted to poor only: Government
-PTI NEW DELHI: The food security plan is not restricted to the poor alone as it will cover 67 per cent of the country's population, Planning Minister Rajeev Shukla said. Explaining the food security coverage, the Minister in a written reply informed Lok Sabha: "The government has decided to cover 67 per cent of the population under Food Security Act. The proposed coverage is not restricted to the poor only. "As per the...
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