The department of food and public distribution has rejected both proposals of the National Advisory Council (NAC) to provide food security, saying the government risked running up against supply constraints and taking on an unsustainable fiscal burden. The rejection by the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution means that both NAC, headed by Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, and the government will have to go back to the drawing board...

The Sonia Gandhi-led NAC, the political interface between the Congress party and the UPA government, is likely to “listen to the government’s side” before finalizing its recommendations for the legislation The prospects for legislation on food security brightened as the National Advisory Council (NAC) may consider a compromise with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) over the terms of the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA). The Sonia Gandhi-led NAC, the political interface...

Soon, the National Food Security Act  will become law. The ruling United Progressive Alliance flagship social security programme of providing every Below the Poverty Line (BPL) family with 25 kg of rice or wheat at Rs 3 per kg per month is a welcome step to alleviate some of the human trauma that haunts the poor in our country. The government also hopes that the Act will secure freedom from...

The Planning Commission has expressed inability to provide funds for implementing the National Food Security Act in the final lap of the Eleventh Five Year Plan, arguing that doing so would mean it will have to divert funds from existing schemes. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, in his presentation before the National Advisory Council (NAC) here on Friday, proposed the rollout of the scheme from the beginning of...

A pilot project on refining methods of counting the poor is attractive at a time when entitlement to welfare schemes is hotly debated Targeted approaches to delivering food and other goods often attract criticism from different quarters. Exclusion of deserving individuals and inclusion of those who are better off have marred programmes such as the Public Distribution System (PDS), so much so that universalization has been recommended as a panacea to...