In pushing for a greatly truncated PDS, the Food Security Bill proposed by the NAC, which has many right-to-food activists, undermines the PDS itself. ENSURING food security was the big promise of United Progressive Alliance-2. The promise to enact legislation to ensure a minimum quantity of affordable food to all poor households in the country was part of the election manifesto of the Congress party that leads the government. The 100-day...
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“Make PDS universal in naxal-affected districts” by Gargi Parsai
Participating in the second meeting of the Chief Ministers' Working Group on Food and Public Distribution here, Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Wednesday asked the Centre to make the public distribution system (PDS) universal in the Left-Wing Extremism-affected districts, as well as, all Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste families living in tribal areas to do away with “errors of exclusion.” Mr. Singh is a member of the working group, set...
More »PM tells SC to lay off policy issues
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday virtually ticked off the Supreme Court, saying that it "should not get into policy formation". The trigger for this rebuke was the apex court's anger at grains rotting in FCI and government godowns, and its direction to agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to distribute grains for free to families living below the poverty line. Talking to a group of editors on Monday morning, Singh said...
More »Order on free grain to poor can't be executed: Manmohan Singh by Siddharth Varadarajan
“Supreme Court should not go into realm of policy formulation” The government will do all it can to provide affordable food to those below the poverty line but cannot implement the Supreme Court's order to give free foodgrains to the poor, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday. In an interaction with a small group of editors at his residence — his first in several years — Dr. Singh handled questions on...
More »“Manmohan's comment uncalled for”
The Communist Party of India on Tuesday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remark about the Supreme Court on grain distribution was uncalled for and the court order has to be understood in the proper spirit. “It is not an issue of the Supreme Court exceeding its jurisdiction and transgressing into the domain of the executive. One has to understand the proper spirit and the language of the order,” the party's central...
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