The Sharad Pawar-headed food ministry has set itself up for a confrontation with the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council on the National Food Security Bill. Pre-empting NAC’s draft on NFSA, the food ministry has decided to implement the Tendulkar committee report on poverty numbers which fall far below the figures that the NAC formula would have reached. In its last meeting, NAC had proposed and Congress president Sonia Gandhi had...
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Signalling a shift to universal PDS by Gargi Parsai
The NAC's recommendations on food security measures take heed of the fact that PDS reform is dependent on the availability of enough foodgrains. Three major elements of the United Progressive Alliance government's commitment to provide food security to the people are reforming the public distribution system (PDS), raising foodgrain productivity and production, and creating a decentralised, modern warehousing system. Ideally, the reforms in the PDS should have come first for the availability...
More »Food for a billion by Nitin Sethi
On Wednesday, the National Advisory Council turned UPA's election promises into firm deliverables under the National Food Security Bill. That was a tough one to resolve itself. But it's a job half done as yet. The Sonia Gandhi-led NAC is now going to get into a much more difficult arena. It has to figure out provisions for the act that hold administration and bureaucracy accountable for delivery and also ensure...
More »Government plans to expand basket of subsidised food items by Rajeev Jayaswal & Subhash Narayan
The government plans to expand the basket of subsidised food items supplied to the poor by adding edible oil, sugar and pulses to wheat and rice provided currently, as it looks to ensure complete nutrition to the deprived. The proposal is expected to be discussed at the July 24 meeting of National Development Council, a body of state chief ministers chaired by the Prime Minister. The idea was mooted by...
More »NAC seeks universal inclusion under food security legislation by Liz Mathew
A panel of experts that sets the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance administration’s social agenda is likely to reject a draft law to offer cash compensation to the poor, who do not receive their quota of subsidized foodgrain. Members of the National Advisory Council (NAC), which is led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, insisted during a Thursday meeting that the entitlement should be universal, instead of being restricted to families below the...
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