A“reworked and realistic” food guarantee scheme is on the anvil. The Suresh Tendulkar panel report is likely to form the basis for poverty estimation required for this. A hint to this effect came during a meeting of the core group of chief ministers on price rise chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Thursday. The government has been under pressure from state governments to make a fresh BPL assessment....
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A right denied by Jayati Ghosh
How serious is the United Progressive Alliance government about enacting food security legislation that gives every citizen in the country the right to adequate food? On the face of it, the government appears to be extremely serious. After all, ensuring the right to food was a major election promise of the Congress party that leads the UPA; it has been frequently mentioned in various official pronouncements of this government; and...
More »Post-RTE, fate of lakhs of kids in limbo by Rema Nagarajan
Even as the Right to Education came into effect on Thursday, the countdown began for lakhs of unrecognised schools across the country against whom action can be taken under the new law unless they get themselves regularized within the next three years. The task of enforcing this regularization will be humungous if studies indicating the proliferation of unrecognized schools are to be believed. In 2005, in a survey in seven...
More »Cracks In The Silo Wall by Lola Nayar
Flaws In The PDS… Poor verification norms, over two crore bogus BPL cards Over 1.2 crore BPL families don’t have a ration card No monitoring, resulting in pilferage, gaps in delivery, poor quality foodgrains Poor profit margins a major cause for corruption Lack of information hinders benefits from reaching the poor …and the Solutions Base fair price shops on new business model The Centre takes ‘responsibility’ for delivery in states Make verification...
More »Backward Bihar goes for the smartest cards by SA Aiyar
India has launched its first high-tech census. Citizens will be photographed and will give 10 fingerprints each. The resultant database will be used to issue identity cards, and later smart cards, to all. All Indians will welcome high-tech smart cards. Yet the technological lead has been taken not by the census commissioner but, astonishingly, by Bihar. This state has just completed a pilot project for smart cards in Patna district,...
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