-PTI   India’s proposed National Food Security Bill has the potential to become a benchmark for the rest of the world to follow, the NGO Oxfam India and UK-based Institute of Development Studies (IDS) has said. The proposed Food Security Bill aims at providing legal entitlement over subsidised Foodgrain to the poor. The Bill was introduced in Parliament in December 2011 and the same has been referred to the Standing Committee. “India is taking...

-Deccan Herald India’s proposed National Food Security Bill can become a benchmark for many countries to follow, said UK-based Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and Oxfam India at a conference in Delhi on Tuesday. The Bill was introduced in Parliament in December 2011 and was referred to a standing committee. Legal entitlement It aims to provide legal entitlement of subsidised Foodgrains to the poor, and is likely to cover nearly 70 per cent...

-IANS Food minister KV Thomas on Wednesday said the Union government was committed to ensuring food security of the people, particularly the vulnerable sections. He said the proposed food security bill aimed to give legal rights to cheaper Foodgrains to 63.5% of the population. Around 180 million households -- 65 million below poverty line (BPL) and 115 million above poverty line (APL) category families -- get subsidised rations under the Public Distribution System through...

-The Hindu The State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called for a sustained month-long campaign across West Bengal in August to highlight its demand for the incorporation in the Centre’s proposed Food Security Bill provision for a universalised public distribution system that ensures a monthly allocation of at least 35 kg of Foodgrains per family at the rate of Rs. 2 per kg. Demands like remunerative prices to...

-The Telegraph Union food minister K.V. Thomas today claimed the Bengal government had distributed only a small fraction of Foodgrain specially allotted last year for 10 backward districts, drawing a sharp rebuttal from the state, as another confrontation with the Centre unfolded over figures. Thomas’s comment came days after Union home minister P. Chidambaram had voiced concern over Bengal’s “culture of violence” and cited casualty figures that were contested by the Mamata...