-India Spend Team The public distribution system (PDS) is meant to play a key role in disbursing government support to the poorest Indians during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. However, the system leaves more than 100 million people excluded from its reach, as per academics Jean Drèze, Reetika Khera and Meghana Mungikar, because the central government uses 2011 population figures from the last census to calculate state-wise PDS coverage. Under the National Food...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Punjab’s plan for seamless wheat procurement with social distancing -Raakhi Jagga
-The Indian Express To manage these efforts, the government is using IT. Starting with the arrival of wheat to its procurement by a private or government agency, the IT section of the Mandi Board will be shepherding the process. Ludhiana: In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, a key challenge for the Punjab government has been to ensure that the procurement of wheat is done in a seamless manner while adhering to...
More »Stimulus is less than what it appears to be, govt must do more for farmers -Ajay Vir Jakhar
-The Indian Express Farmers have wholeheartedly voted for the PM twice; it is the time he reciprocated the feelings and returned the favour. Every season has an end for a harvest to begin. April is upon us; the Indian summer will soon sear the land and wheat harvest will commence in full measure in Punjab & Haryana, while it has already begun in other parts of the country. Other than that, we...
More »Rs 1.7 lakh crore Covid-19 package: Many who have been hit still left out, relief too little -P Vaidyanathan Iyer
-The Indian Express The central government’s package, as it is, comes a week after Kerala first announced a Rs 20,000-crore support for its people. Many states including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Telangana and Rajasthan followed suit. The Rs 1.7 lakh crore economic package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the vulnerable sections — farmers, women, construction workers, senior citizens, widows and the disabled — is less than 1 per cent of...
More »Anxiety In MP, Punjab: Lockdown puts question mark on wheat procurement -Milind Ghatwai & Anju Agnihotri Chaba
-The Indian Express Nearly 19 lakh farmers had registered themselves on the MP government’s e-Uparjan procurement portal between February 1 and 28. Bhopal, Jalandhar: First it was over two weeks of political uncertainty and now it is the 21-day lockdown to combat COVID-19 that is giving anxious moments to the lakhs of wheat growers in Madhya Pradesh. Procurement of their produce —farmers in the state have sown a record 79.68 lakh hectares under...
More »