The Supreme Court today made several suggestions for making use of foodgrain said to be rotting in godowns and fighting hunger in the country. The rebuke to food minister Sharad Pawar — “it was an order, not a suggestion to distribute free grain to the poor” — overshadowed some of the other proposals which, if implemented, will force the central government to increase food allocation to the states. The bench of Justices...
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Inform us of steps to preserve grain: court
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Union government to inform it of the steps taken to preserve the remaining grain procured. Hearing a petition filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties relating to the streamlining of the PDS, a Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma, quoting the court commissioner's report, said 50,000 tonnes of wheat had deteriorated, and was not fit for consumption, and several lakhs of...
More »Free distribution of food grains an order, not suggestion: SC
Taking exception to Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar's statement, the Supreme Court today asserted that it had ordered free distribution of foodgrains to the poor instead of allowing them to rot in godowns and it was not a suggestion as made out by him. "It was not a suggestion. It is there in our order. You tell the Minister," the court told the government counsel. A bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and...
More »SC pulls up Sharad Pawar by Dhananjay Mahapatra
The Supreme Court on Tuesday took strong exception to Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar's statement that sugar prices might rise in near future. The apex court said that statements like these would encourage hoarding of sugar. The Supreme Court also asserted that it had ordered free distribution of foodgrains to the poor instead of allowing them to rot in godowns and it was not a suggestion as made out by...
More »Rural India's communication divide by V Sridhar and Shamsher Singh
The ubiquitousness of the mobile phone in urban areas and its spread in rural areas in India seem to have fed a notion — not substantiated by hard evidence — that there is a wide and deep market for such services in the countryside. Such a notion has remained largely unverified because of the scarcity of data on the extent of ownership of assets and access to services such as...
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