Two associations representing over 17,000 ration shop dealers in Bengal moved the Supreme Court today, demanding better pay and working conditions for their members. The associations demanded a “pay commission” to fix minimum salaries, protection for the members against “mob fury” and electronic weighing machines and computers to stop allegations of diversion. The West Bengal M.R. Dealers Association and the All Bengal Fair Price Shop Dealers’ Welfare Association claimed they were “unable...

Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee Tuesday said that the government is committed to enacting the Food Security Act and that the financial implications of this will be known only after the Planning Commission determines the number of families living below the poverty line. He told reporters here that the act had two aspects - one to ensure availability of food to all and another to provide to BPL (below poverty...

Faced with acute shortage in supply of foodgrain in the public distribution system (PDS), all fair price shop owners in the state have decided to down their shutters from September 20 for an indefinite period. Three year ago, ration shops were gutted and many dealers had to go underground after food riots due to shortage. Surprisingly, minister of food & supplies Paresh Adhikari appeared to be unaware of the situation. “We...

The goal of food for all can be achieved only through greater and integrated attention to production, procurement, preservation and public distribution. The President, in her address to Parliament on June 4, 2009, announced: “My Government proposes to enact a new law — the National Food Security Act — that will provide a statutory basis for a framework which assures food security for all. Every family below the poverty line in...

When flames from an open cooking fire raced through Fida Hussein's shack in northern India, it was a disaster for him and his poverty-stricken family. "We have nothing," said Hussein as he stood in the ruins of his hut through which the sky could be seen between the burnt roof timbers in a remote corner of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state. India's number of millionaires grew by 51 percent...