-The Indian Express The cash crunch is hindering the State Governments’ relief efforts at every step. Centre must urgently provide additional foodgrain to poorest states for expanding PDS coverage. As the monsoon advances, there is an urgent need to consider what can be done to prevent hunger during the rainy season — the hardest time of the year for poor families in large parts of rural India. The monsoon is expected to...

-The Hindu BJP government has given a free hand to corporate houses to exploit us, they say Chandigarh: Several farmers under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh Samiti on Monday held protests in several districts of Punjab against the Centre’s recent ordinance on the agriculture sector, besides the proposed amendment to the Electricity Act, 2003. Farmers staged the protests in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Ferozpur, Moga, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Fazilka districts and submitted...

-The Telegraph It’s unclear whether any decision by the State Government would have a bearing on central facilities like the AIIMS Health rights groups have appealed to the Delhi government not to close its hospitals to patients from outside the capital amid suggestions the administration would take a decision on the matter on Sunday. A Delhi government source said an expert committee had in a report to the State Government said Delhi’s health...

-Down to Earth The survey also reveals several other shocking facts that fly in the face of government claims on migrants. Eighty per cent migrant workers surveyed by Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN), do not have access to government ration two months after the COVID-19 lockdown indicating food distress among stranded migrants to be as high as the first phase of the lockdown. The results are based on 821 distress calls received by...

-Livemint.com The ongoing reforms won’t help if they remain deprived of market access and suffer low demand Earlier this week, as part of the package for Aatmanirbhar Bharat, the Cabinet approved the proposals for agricultural marketing reforms announced in May by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The government has approved the The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020, along with amendments to the Essential Commodities Act. It has also...