-The Hindu Tribal Affairs Minister Kishore Chandra Deo has criticised the Union and State governments for disinvesting in public sector companies to permit private entities to mine in tribal-dominated Schedule V areas, calling the move unconstitutional. In a letter to Environment and Forests Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, Mr. Deo said, "Circumventing the constitutional provisions through disinvestment is being done in a stealthy manner through decisions of the government instead of adhering to...
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Midday meal mess: SC notice to Centre, states -Dhananjay Mahapatra
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre and states to respond to two PILs seeking an independent probe into midday meal scheme-related deaths and alleged laxity in enforcing guidelines to ensure healthy food in the welfare scheme. The PILs - by an NGO through advocate Shobha and another by Sanjeeb Panigrahi - said they were approaching the court "in the wake of horrifying incidents of...
More »Private players to import 7,000 tonnes of onions -Dipak Kumar Dash & Sidhartha
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Private players have placed orders to import around 7,000 tonnes of onions, while the government leaned on a public sector company to ship the key kitchen ingredient to beat the domestic shortage. The moves came even as the food and consumer affairs ministry said it will seek export curbs if prices did not ease in a fortnight. Senior government officials said Project Export Corporation was on...
More »Hygiene a casualty in meal scheme, says petition in Supreme Court
-The Hindu Bench issues notice to Centre and 12 States The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre and 12 States seeking their response on steps taken to ensure cleanliness in the midday meal scheme and to prevent incidents like the one that occurred last month in a government primary school in a Bihar village, where 23children died after eating contaminated food. The States to which a Bench of Chief Justice...
More »Food Security Bill on shaky turf -KP Prabhakaran Nair
-The New Indian Express In 1948 when the United Nations passed the covenant ensuring the right to food, vis-à-vis the right to proper livelihood, to which India became a signatory, it did not envisage that the whole issue would be caught up in such an imbroglio - political and economic - as one witnesses today. The original covenant in article 25 ensures the "right to work and livelihood" and right to...
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