Uttarakhand is likely to pass the much-awaited Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act, setting the stage for private companies like RIL and ITC to get into contract farming in the state and set up private mandis. Uttarakhand agriculture minister, Trivendra Singh Rawat on Friday said chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has agreed to give the final nod to the proposal at the next Cabinet meeting. The move follows the green...
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Ensuring food security for all by Pradeep S Mehta
The National Food Security Bill, 2010 that aims to provide subsidised foodgrain to the very poor is welcome, but its definition of ‘food security’ is too narrow. The Rome declaration on World Food Security (at the World Food Summit in 1996) states that “we, the heads of state and government ... reaffirm the right of everyone to have (physical and economic) access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the...
More »Divakaran contests FICCI's proposal to privatise PDS
Kerala Food and Civil Supplies Minister C. Divakaran has come out strongly against the suggestion of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) that the Union government withdraw from grain procurement, storage and distribution under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and outsource these to private operators. FICCI makes the suggestion in a study report, which was released a few days ago. In a statement here on Monday, Mr. Divakaran...
More »Missing the woods, the trees by Mani Shankar Aiyar
The government has a panoply of legislative measures that can counter Maoists more than strengthening security measures against the ‘criminals’. Principal among these is the provision in paragraph 3 of Part A of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution which vests in the Centre the right to ‘issue directions’ to states with regard to administration in the Maoist-affected tribal areas. Invoking this provision becomes imperative in light of the failure of...
More »PESA: Government's sheathed weapon
In the least remarked upon move by the government to take on the development challenge in left-wing extremist (LWE) areas, Sudha Pillai was elevated to member-secretary of the Planning Commission on the eve of her retirement from the IAS. A topper in her batch, Sudha was initially posted to her home state of Punjab and then moved to Kerala after her marriage to her batchmate, present home secretary Gopal Pillai....
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