In pushing for a greatly truncated PDS, the Food Security Bill proposed by the NAC, which has many right-to-food activists, undermines the PDS itself. ENSURING food security was the big promise of United Progressive Alliance-2. The promise to enact legislation to ensure a minimum quantity of affordable food to all poor households in the country was part of the election manifesto of the Congress party that leads the government. The 100-day...

A conflict has risen between the National Advisory Council (NAC), chaired by Ms Sonia Gandhi, and the rural development ministry over the time-frame for completing the BPL census. NAC members N C Saxena and Harsh Mander, in particular, want the head count to be completed by September 2011. The rural development ministry has ruled out the possibility of conducting the census of BPL cardholders within such a short duration. It...

We need to make sure nutrition is not easily neglected. And that means putting pressure on leaders throughout society to focus on nutrition. I have just finished a trip to India to help contribute to the efforts on ending malnutrition. The politicians and media were talking about the sparkling new economic growth and development figures. There was no such attention given to the “other” growth and development figures — those related...

Union minister for rural development CP Joshi on Monday turned the table on the Nitish Kumar led-NDA government, saying that the state government had failed to bring into play good governance in the implementation of centrally-sponsored schemes, which resulted in the poor performance of the present dispensation. Joshi, who on Sunday had first hand experience of the implementation of village road construction under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act...

“The hungry must not be left out” The steering group of the Right to Food Campaign on Saturday expressed its apprehension about doing away with the distribution of subsidised foodgrains to Above Poverty line (APL) Beneficiaries under the Public Distribution System (PDS), as suggested by the Supreme Court. While welcoming the court's order on rotting foodgrains, the campaign, that is pressing for universal PDS, has said that leaving out APL would mean...