-The Hindu The focus on One Nation One Ration Card is misplaced when what is needed is a universal Public Distribution System With the economic crisis continuing on the one hand and the health system crumbling under the burden of rising COVID-19 cases on the other, it is clear that it will take a long time for things to get back to “normal”. Unemployment is high and it will take a while...
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That foodgrain stocks lie in public godowns while people are going hungry is a scandal -Dipa Sinha
-The Indian Express What is disturbing is that in the middle of the current crisis some are now calling for a massive downsizing of the PDS and a shift to cash transfers in place of foodgrains. The Public Distribution System has played an important role in providing relief to people in the aftermath of the national lockdown. With COVID-19 cases increasing and the economy continuing to be in a downturn, some corrective...
More »It’s about food, nutrition and livelihood security -MS Swaminathan & Nitya Rao
-The Hindu Farmers’ cooperation, technological upgrading and favourable public policies can help India deal with the pandemic The current national lockdown to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the problems of food, nutrition and livelihood security confronting a large number of rural people, in particular, migrants to cities. While some measures have been announced, such as provision of additional rice or wheat, some pulses and oil free of cost, as well as...
More »Why Sitharaman’s 'Pulses For All' Promise Still Hasn't Been Implemented -Kabir Agarwal and Dheeraj Mishra
-TheWire.in New Delhi: On March 26, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government had decided that all ration card holders in India will be provided one kilogram of pulses every month starting April, for a period of three months. This was a part of the PM Garib Kalyan package – the Centre’s only relief measure so far to deal with the consequences of the lockdown for the poor. Almost a month...
More »Only 10% free pulses under govt scheme distributed to poor so far -Harikishan Sharma
-The Indian Express According to sources, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), which comes under administrative control of the Agriculture Ministry, has been tasked with ensuring supply of pulses from the buffer stocks it maintains. Announced as part of the COVID-19 relief package about a month ago, free pulses — 1 kg per family — to beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) are yet to reach...
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