The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) has written to the Manmohan Singh government on the issue of manual scavenging: in a letter dated June 9, it has made out a case once again for a new law to end manual scavenging. The letter points out that in a resolution on October 23, 2010, the NAC had expressed its anguish at the official failure to end manual scavenging in the country...

Rise to the occasion, PM tells railways Ministry yet to finalise Food Security Bill draft Poor storage and movement of foodgrains are a matter of worry for the second consecutive year to the UPA government. Procurement during the current rabi marketing season has already exceeded last year's level. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution is bothered about the likely scenario of destruction of procured foodgrains during what is being described...

In the season of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council too is mounting pressure on the Centre to accept its recommendations on various social sector legislations. Over the past one month, the council has handed in its versions of the food security and communal violence bills as well as four notes on land acquisition, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), protection of street vendors and the...

When it was almost certain that the governments of the country were to take their hands off from total acquisition of land for a private project, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has started thinking otherwise. The thought went out for hundred per cent acquisition by the government. Had this come at the germinal stage of discussion about changes in the colonial Act, it could have resulted in Mamata Banerjee’s face...

In a bid to smoothen the distribution of foodgrain across the country, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has approved the developing of a National Foodgrain Movement Plan that will tie up with the UPA government’s ambitious food security law, sources said. To be implemented by the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution, in collaboration with Indian railways, the plan was recently discussed between the PM and MoS, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public...