Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has responded to Supreme Court's recommendations of distributing grains to the poor for free instead of letting them rot. "It's not possible to implement the Supreme Court's order," the minister said. On August 13, the apex court had asked the Centre to consider free distribution of foodgrain to the hungry poor of the country instead of allowing it to rot in Food Corporation of India...
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RTI under attack by V Eshwar Anand
EVEN though the Right to Information Act guarantees citizens their right to know and expose corruption in government offices, increasing attacks on RTI activists have put this most important right in jeopardy. The RTI Act was enacted after a long struggle by civil rights organisations. However, those who dare question the ways of the powers that be and expose them are eliminated in cold-blooded murders. The manner in which Amit...
More »Distribute foodgrains at very low or no cost, Supreme Court tells Centre by J Venkatesan
“Consider increasing quantum of food supply to BPL population” ‘Consider opening fair price shops for all the 30 days in a month' A Bench passed the order, taking on record affidavit filed by Centre To deal with the problem of foodgrains rotting in godowns, the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to consider distributing them at “very low cost” or “no cost” as a short term measure. A Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari...
More »'Why not abolish PDS for APL families?' by Dhananjay Mahapatra
In what could put the government on a politically difficult turf, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to answer within two weeks why cheap ration under public distribution system (PDS) to above poverty line card holders should not be abolished and the BPL category enlarged. Under the targetted PDS (TPDS), wheat and rice are available at cheap rates to one crore poorest of the poor families (Antyoday Anna...
More »Chhattisgarh's food revolution by Ejaz Kaiser
Since she could remember, labourer Rama Nag (34) didn't know what her ration card meant, that as one of India's nearly 400 million officially poor people, she was entitled to subsidised foodgrain. Until 2006, here in the heart of impoverished tribal India, on the edge of the sprawling forests of Bastar and the Maoist zone of Dantewada, Nag and her family of four survived on rice and whatever they could...
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