Commission agents to start procuring for Central agency from today Bowing to the pressure exerted by the powerful lobby of commission agents, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has decided to withdraw its directive to make direct payment to farmers in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. Union Agriculture and Food Minister Sharad Pawar, who was in Chandigarh on Monday, had a meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Food and...

Just three days after the Jaypee group resumed work on the Yamuna Expressway in Aligarh’s Tappal area in Uttar Pradesh after the last month’s agitation, the farmers again brought it to a halt on Tuesday evening, demanding compensation for the crops on the land acquired for the project, return of the land to farmers who were against acquisition, and withdrawal of the cases registered against them during the agitation. The immediate...

Food Corporation of India (FCI) has tied up with a few banks for direct payment to farmers for the grains to be procured in the kharif marketing season 2010-11. "We are firm on our stand and we will try to put direct payment system to farmers into operation from the coming paddy procurement season," a senior official of FCI told media here. FCI has made arrangements with the State Bank...

The alleged appeasement of sarpanches by the Ashok Gehlot government may continue. The committee set up to consider the demands of agitating sarpanches seeking material purchasing power, among other things, in MGNREGS might concede the demands "though in a fresh perspective." According to sources, the committee which met on Wednesday, is working on a policy that would give sole right to the panchayats for issuing tenders for purchasing materials needed...

Once lauded as a model state for implementation of MGNREGA — the flagship programme of the UPA government — the state is on the backfoot nowadays as far as the scheme is concerned. Even as the Opposition BJP and the ruling Congress try to extract political mileage out of sarpanches agitation, at stake is the very scheme that has not only reduced the migration of labourers to other states but...