Expressing dissatisfaction over the slow rate of stock movement from Haryana, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday urged Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution K. V. Thomas to speed up the movement of wheat stock procured by various procurement agencies. An official spokesman said that Mr. Hooda met the Union Minister here. Prof. Thomas appreciated the procurement process in the State and said that Haryana was...

To make storage space available for the fresh rabi harvest, the Union government has decided to allocate an additional 5 million tonnes of wheat and rice to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) population under the public distribution system (PDS). The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, cleared the Food Ministry's proposal at a meeting on Monday. The additional Foodgrains will be made available from June 1 over...

An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on Food is scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss the proposed National Food Security Bill and take a view on the suggestions made by the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council (NAC) and Rangarajan Panel. According to sources, the Food Ministry will place the reports of both the NAC and the Prime Minister’s panel headed by PMEAC chairman C Rangarajan before the EGoM for guidance. The...

It was quite a role reversal. Moments after my photojournalist colleague Sayantoni and I introduced ourselves to the chief medical officer of Jhajjar district in Haryana, he did what we as journalists normally do. Reel off a barrage of questions. The first question was new (not what one generally faces while covering renewable energy policy in Delhi), “Bhai-behen kitne hain? (How many sisters/brothers you have?)” and my quick answer was “koi...

The Prime Minister-appointed panel on Food and Public Distribution System (F&PDS) headed by Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia has suggested that the current system of distributing PDS Foodgrain per household should be replaced with per capita allocation. According to National Sample Survey (NSS) data, lower income households have more members per family than higher income households, the panel has said in its draft report. Justifying its suggestion as a “progressive...