President Pratiba Patil today said the Centre is consulting state governments on the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA), which will give the poor a legal entitlement to subsidised foodgrains. “The states are being consulted as the success of the programme (NFSA) hinges critically on their commitment to reforms in the public distribution system (PDS),” Ms. Patil said in her address to Parliament to mark the beginning of the Budget Session. The...

The Manmohan Singh government's options on keeping a check on the bill for the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA) may shrink further with Parliament's standing committee on finance likely to endorse the states' tally of BPL families pegged at 11.5 crore. The highly contentious issue of enumerating the poor has seen the government differ with the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC), which originally considered universal PDS but later curtailed...

The National Advisory Council, headed by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, on Saturday settled for a much less ambitious National Food Security Act than it had previously agreed to. Scaling down its recommendations, it decided to recommend subsidised foodgrains for 46% of the rural Indian population and 28% of the urban population. The pruning of the recommendation had an immediate fallout, with the NAC member Jean Dreaze, face of the right-to-food security campaign,...

Five years ago, when the proposed National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was a subject of fierce controversy, Bunker Roy compared the attitude of the government to that of a dog who crosses a road half-way, can’t decide whether to go forward or backward, and gets run over. This enlightening image applies again today, in the context of the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA). The National Advisory Council (NAC) discussed...

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...