Ahead of a crucial meeting, on the coming Monday, of a group of ministers to finalise the Food Security Bill, a consensus is emerging on a dual system of subsidy. This is that families below the poverty line (BPL) be given food subsidy through direct cash transfer. And, those above the poverty line (APL) be distributed foodgrains at a level equal to the minimum support price (MSP) offered to farmers, which...
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7 crore pulled out of poverty during 11th Plan period by Mahendra Kumar Singh
Planning Commission on Wednesday claimed the UPA government’s inclusive agenda had uplifted around 7 crore from below poverty line (BPL) during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2007-12). The initial findings suggest that absolute poverty in the country may have come down by five percentage points during the 11th Plan. Satisfied with the figures, deputy chairman of Plan panel Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the government’s policy for inclusive growth is paying off. He...
More »Slum-dwellers don’t want cash for ration: Survey
Raising their voice against the Delhi Government’s plans to introduce cash in lieu of ration residents and volunteers working on the public distribution system came together on Thursday and released a survey from the slums of Delhi showing that 99% of the respondents don’t want cash transfers. The survey conducted across a sample of 593 ration card holders in 14 slum areas shows that 99% of the people living in these...
More »Nuclear power must be expanded: Plan panel
Asserting that nuclear power will play a major role in meeting the energy needs of the country during the 12th Five-Year Plan, the Planning Commission on Thursday said the country needed an additional 1,00,000 MW of power during the 12th Plan period (2012-17) and therefore capacity expansion should be undertaken keeping the safety measures intact. Making a presentation to the Prime Minister at the full-fledged meeting of the Commission, Deputy Chairman...
More »Glare on ration data
The Supreme Court today slammed the Centre for sticking to the below-poverty-line estimates of the 1991 census in distributing PDS grain when preliminary figures for the 2010-11 census, showing a much higher number of BPL families, are available. The judges also criticised the income cap fixed by the government to determine families below the poverty line (BPL) by suggesting it was outdated. The 1991 census showed 36 per cent of the population...
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