The National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by Sonia Gandhi, on Saturday recommended to the government to grant differential legal entitlement of foodgrains to nearly 800 million people through a reformed PDS network from the next financial year. The NAC also decided to set aside the BPL criteria and suggested two broad categories — priority and general — eligible for legal foodgrain entitlement under the proposed food security law. As per the recommendations,...

A Greenpeace India delegation Tuesday met the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture and demanded a ban on Genetically Modified (GM) crops, saying that they were a threat to the country's agriculture, food safety and environment. The delegation made a presentation before the standing committee and presented evidence and credible publications outlining the threats posed by GM crops. 'We want the committee to make recommendations that will ensure a sustainable future for our...

It has not included the clause on price regulation of seeds The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved additional amendments to the Seeds Bill. 2004. The amendments however did not include the clause on price regulation of seeds that is being demanded by members of Parliament who have moved amendments to the Bill that may be introduced in this session. They wanted a regulatory mechanism on pricing of seeds so that seeds were available...

How would you rate the functioning of the RTI Act five years into its enactment? It has been a mixed experience. It is encouraging that we have one of the best laws in the world but its shoddy implementation is taking the sheen away. The two nerve centers of RTI are simplifying the process of filing an application and making the functioning of the Commission effective. The posts of Information Commissioner...

The upper castes, it seems, are not the only ones who discriminate against Dalits. Three Dalit men in Rajasthan were fined R15,000 each by their Muslim sarpanch (village headman) for drinking water from a public tap on Wednesday evening in Randhisar village, 90 km from Bikaner town in the northwestern part of the state. The trio, Beer Balram Meghwal, Sattu Ram and Nandu Ram, has lodged a police complaint. “We were drinking...