Differences between the National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, and the government over the food security Bill have begun to narrow, but a suggestion by the agriculture ministry to offer cash to poor consumers in case sufficient Foodgrain isn’t available remains a contentious issue.“We do not have any serious objections to the recommendations of the NAC. But the ministry wants to have the provision for...
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PM panel to discuss NAC proposal on food bill tomorrow
An expert committee set up by the Prime Minister is to examine tomorrow recommendations of National Advisory Council (NAC) on the proposed National food Security Bill."In tomorrow''s meeting, we are going to discuss about the differential Foodgrains entitlement scenario and the feasibility of increasing production and procurement," a senior government official told PTI.In the first meeting, there was a general discussion on the proposals made by the NAC. In tomorrow''s...
More »Rangarajan panel grapples with survey methodology by Gargi Parsai
As to who should conduct the survey to identify the ‘priority' and ‘general' categories of households as recommended by the National Advisory Council (NAC) was an issue that the expert panel headed by chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, C. Rangarajan, grappled with in its meeting here on Tuesday.The NAC has recommended that legal entitlements to subsidised Foodgrains be extended to at least 75 per cent of the...
More »Will the BPL survey go on and on? by MK Sunil Kumar
It seems that the survey to identify the BPL families in the state will be an unending process. Now, the Union Government's plan to start a comprehensive survey of BPL families in the country has affected the state's efforts to complete the survey of BPL families.Earlier, the state government had to abandon the survey carried out by the Kudumbashree workers in 2008 following widespread irregularities. The government had decided to...
More »A yawning gap by Sanjeeb Mukherjee
From the time a farmer in India harvests his produce to the time it lands on your plate, farm products go through several layers of middlemen, wholesalers, cold chains and other intermediaries, which push its price up by many notches. The end result: growers get paid less and consumers pay more. The stranglehold that the government has over agriculture produce marketing in India has given rise to abject inefficiencies, lack...
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