The ongoing probe into illegal mining in Karnataka have revealed some startling facts, including the fact that transportation of ore has gone up two fold after a ban was imposed. Karnataka Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde is probing the issue of illegal mining, which rocked the Parliament a couple of days ago. Justice Hegde, who is expected to submit his report on illegal mining in another four months, told rediff.com that the...
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Arunachal CM stresses on PDS, hill transport subsidy
Streamlining the PDS is a priority of the Arunachal Pradesh government and it has taken up with the Centre for early release of funds against bills for hill transport subsidy held back for more than five years, Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu said on Sunday. Unfurling the National Tricolour on the 64th Independence Day, Khandu said the state required Rs 200 crore a year as hill transport subsidy for reaching PDS...
More »Threat to a system by CP Chandrasekhar
The National Advisory Council's move to restrict universalisation of the PDS to the most disadvantaged districts may ultimately end up limiting its impact. RECENT weeks have seen rather contradictory statements on the challenge of ensuring food security and the set of feasible initiatives for managing the food economy. To start with, the National Advisory Council (NAC), which recognises the need for a universal public distribution system (PDS), and which was expected to...
More »KV Thomas, Minister of State for Agriculture interviewed by Bijay Kumar Singh
It is estimated that food grain worth Rs 60,000 crore have been left to rot. Who is responsible? This figure is highly exaggerated. According to a study by the agriculture ministry, only 0.004 percent of stored food grain are rotten. There were 11,708 tonnes of damaged and non-issuable food grain in Food Corporation of India (FCI) depots. However, the whole lot hasn’t become spoilt. This quantity has become non-issuable to...
More »India Asks, Should Food Be a Right for the Poor? by Jim Yardley
JHABUA, India — Inside the drab district hospital, where dogs patter down the corridors, sniffing for food, Ratan Bhuria’s children are curled together in the malnutrition ward, hovering at the edge of starvation. His daughter, Nani, is 4 and weighs 20 pounds. His son, Jogdiya, is 2 and weighs only eight. Landless and illiterate, drowned by debt, Mr. Bhuria and his ailing children have staggered into the hospital ward after falling...
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