The Supreme Court's directive to the Union government to distribute rotting grain to the poor free of cost was an “order” and the Bihar government must demand free grain from the Centre to alleviate the plight of the drought-hit people in the State, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said here on Thursday. Despite the Prime Minister's reservations, the Centre must comply with the court order of August...

KEY TRENDS   • Section 105 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, which provides for excluding 13 Central legislation, including Land Acquisition (Mines) Act 1885, Atomic Energy Act, 1962, Railway Act 1989, National Highways Act 1956 and Metro Railways (Construction of Works) Act, 1978, from its purview, has been amended for payment of compensation with rigours $ • The amendments have now...

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...

The steering group of the Right to Food Campaign on Wednesday expressed its “shock” at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement asking the Supreme Court not to interfere with policy and said it showed how “completely anti-poor” the government was. In a press release here, the Campaign — a conglomeration of rights and civil society groups — said that when, under the Constitution, people had the Right to Life as well as...

“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...