-The Hindu A new study has estimated that 46.7 per cent or 25.9 million metric tonnes (MMTs) of the grains (rice and wheat), released through the PDS, did not reach the intended beneficiaries in 2011-12. In the study, based on the latest NSSO data, by Chair Professor for Agriculture at ICRIER and former Chairman, Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP), Ashok Gulati and Shweta Saini, Chhattisgarh was the best performing...
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Social activists caution Government not to ignore its legal responsibility & use budget cuts to dilute the MGNREGA
-Press Release of People's Action for Employment Guarantee New Delhi: Monday marks the 9th anniversary of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The Act is unique to India and is known across the world as not only one of the most innovative social security measures but also an entitlement guaranteed by law passed unanimously by both houses of parliament. Since its inception, 1 in 3 households in rural India have worked...
More »Volte-face on Food security
-Economic and Political Weekly A "high-level" committee makes half-baked recommendations which will rollback the PDS. A ccording to media reports, former Union Minister for Food Shanta Kumar recently disowned the National Food security Act (NFSA) on behalf of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He explained, without blinking, that the BJP had just pretended to support the Act when it was being discussed in Parliament, for fear of the possible electoral consequences of...
More »Five Important Questions On Food security -Lola Nayar
-Outlook A parsing of the recent expert report on food security reveals that most of its solutions do not meet the greater public good. The BJP's election manifesto had stated "that ‘universal food security' is integral to national security. BJP will take steps to ensure that the benefits of the scheme reach the common man and that the right to food does not remain an act on paper or a political...
More »Modi government's doublespeak on food security is a recipe for chaos and corruption -Jean Drèze
-Scroll.in The strongest safeguard against fraud is not end-to-end computerisation but clarity of entitlements: if people know what is due to them, they will fight for it. In a stunning admission of party hypocrisy, former Food Minister Shanta Kumar recently stated that the Bharatiya Janata Party's support for the National Food security Act last year was just a pretence. Remember, when the act was being discussed in Parliament, BJP leaders (from Narendra...
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