-The Hindu   The Right to Food Campaign on Tuesday appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to set aside the government draft of the Food Security Bill which “minimises government's obligations, restricts people's entitlements and is devoid of any accountability”. Rejecting the government's draft Bill, the Campaign gave a national call for action. In an open letter to the Prime Minister, the Campaign said the draft Bill approved by the Empowered Group of...

The United Progressive Alliance government on Friday unveiled its second draft Bill addressing the burning issues of land acquisition as well as rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R). The National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011, as recommended by the National Advisory Council, will make it mandatory that gram sabhas are consulted and the R&R package is executed before the acquired land is transferred. Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh...

India’s domestic wheat prices higher than international rates by around $100 per tonne; traders seek subsidy India’s food ministry will oppose a proposal to export wheat as it prefers to distribute the excess to the poor within the country, K.V. Thomas, Union minister of state (independent charge) for consumer affairs, food and public distribution, said on Thursday. “We want the wheat produced by our farmers to be distributed here first,” Thomas said,...

The embarrassment of riches in grain stocks confronting the government is a problem of its own making. It is the product of ill-conceived policies on grain procurement, storage and distribution and mistimed decisions on opening and shutting of foodgrain exports. The grain stocks that have piled up as a consequence are far more than needed for any rational inventory and public distribution programme. Burgeoning food stocks pose problems of storage...

The Centre's food subsidy bill, incurred mainly on account of reimbursemnet of economic costs to theFood Corporation of India for grain procurement, holding and transportation, has shot up by a whopping Rs 34,738 crore compared to the budgetary allocation for 2011-12. This is mainly due to government buys of a record foodgrain crop in the 2010-11 agricultural year (july-june).The original subsidy for the year was estimated at Rs 47,239.8 crore....