The Right to Food Campaign on Tuesday expressed its disappointment with the “narrow manner'' in which the proposed food security Bill was being formulated and sought a public debate on the subject. They resolved to intensify their efforts to secure a legal right to food and nutrition for all. At a meeting with Union Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, a delegation of activists said the proposal to provide 25 kg...
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Women in West Bengal choose self-help groups over MNREGS by Romita Datta
There were few takers among women in West Bengal for jobs granted under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) in the fiscal year ended March. Women took up only 33% of the 153.4 million man-days of jobs granted in West Bengal under the scheme, much lower than the national average, which was at 47-48%. In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, women accounted for 85% and 81%, respectively of jobs...
More »Sonia effect? Plan panel raises BPL bar by Nitin Sethi & Mahendra Kumar Singh
The uncertainty over the number of people to benefit from the proposed food security law has abated. With Sonia Gandhi in her new role as National Advisory Council chairperson keeping a vigil, the Planning Commission on Saturday dropped its reluctance to accept Tendulkar committee's report putting the size of the below poverty line (BPL) population at 37.2%. The Planning Commission had so far been keen on going with its own...
More »‘FCI leaves wheat to rot in open' by Neena Vyas
The Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded the setting up of a parliamentary committee to look into the alleged neglect by the Food Corporation of India as 72 lakh tonnes of wheat is rotting, having been kept in open warehouses for over a year. A surprise visit by the former BJP president, Rajnath Singh, and partymen to warehouses in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh revealed “criminal neglect” by FCI authorities. Samples...
More »How to feed your billionaires by P Sainath
Freebies for the IPL — at a time of savage food subsidy cuts for the poor — benefit four men who make the Forbes Billionaire List of 2010 and a few other, mere multi-millionaires. And so the IPL fracas is now heading for its own Champions League. Union Cabinet Ministers, Union Ministers of State, Chief Ministers (and who knows a Governor or two might pop up yet) are being named...
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