-The Business Standard The government has in principle decided to expand the coverage of population under the proposed Food Security Bill to include almost 70 per cent of Indians, who will have the legal right to cheap food, against the earlier proposal of 64 per cent of the same. It will also end the below and above poverty line (BPL and APL) demarcation, prevailing in the current public distribution system (PDS). However,...

-The Economic Times Ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, the Left Front has upped the ante against the government over the food security bill, demanding a universal public distribution system and scrapping of Planning Commission's poverty estimates. CPM, CPI, RSP and All India Forward Bloc - kick-started a five-day sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar on Monday. Senior Left leaders, including CPM leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, Brinda Karat, Basudeb Acharia, CPI's AB...

-The Times of India The present food Bill legalises the injustices of a targeted distribution system A national campaign throughout the month of July on issues related to food security and against rising prices will culminate in a five-day sit-in protest in Delhi beginning today. These are issues fundamental to the well-being of the majority of our people and therefore deserve national support.   With the spectre of drought haunting the countryside, speculators, hoarders...

-Business Today "I want it back," says Sharada Begum. The 67-year-old woman is a member of one of the 100 households of Raghubir Nagar, a resettlement colony in west Delhi, chosen to participate in a pilot scheme that aimed to turn the public distribution system (PDS) on its head. Through all of 2011, these households had Rs 1,000 transferred every month to a woman member's bank account in lieu of rice, wheat,...

-The Indian Express The government on Friday said the spectre of drought over a few states and the likelihood of a lower rainfall pattern this year should not be a concern for a “panicky situation” as it is geared up to face the situation with enough stocks of foodgrains and sugar. Last year the production of both foodgrains and sugar had overshot the estimate leaving the government with adequate resources for the...