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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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 »Food security: SC punches holes in Plan panel figures
-The Indian Express Any common man with a little common sense can understand that a person cannot afford to consume 2,400 calories on an average income of Rs 20 or Rs 10 per day, the Supreme Court said on Friday, raising doubts about the government’s norms for providing food security to vulnerable sections like the Below Poverty Line (BPL) population. Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma said the Planning Commission’s calculation...
More »SC ‘doubtful’ of sops to women pregnant from child marriages by Krishnadas Rajagopal
The Supreme Court on Friday appeared doubtful about pressing the government to give cash “incentives” under a centrally sponsored scheme to poor women pregnant from child marriages, saying this may be seen as “encouraging” the social crime. “If Government of India gives incentives, will it not mean that it is encouraging child marriages.... We cannot give approval to child marriages,” a Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma observed. The...
More »‘The National Food Security Act must include strong safeguards'
-The Hindu A letter to the Prime Minister on the importance of a ‘near-universal PDS.' July 21, 2011 Dr. Manmohan Singh Prime Minister of India Respected Prime Minister, We are a group of research scholars and student volunteers who have just spent three weeks surveying the Public Distribution System (PDS) around the country. We are writing to share a few thoughts on the National Food Security Act in the light of this experience. Our survey covered...
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