The debate over the National Food Security Act has been reduced to a circus for political parties, NGOs and the National Advisory Council to perform verbal calisthenics. The discussion on who is entitled, who is not entitled and who should be entitled has gone on for over two years. The discourse is deteriorating into informed nit-picking. The time for debate is over; the time for decision is overdue. Let us get...
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BPL families to get Rs 400 for kerosene & LPG by Chetan Chauhan
Every family below poverty line may get over Rs 400 per month from the government from April next year in lieu of fuel subsidy for kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas cylinders as part of India's first direct cash transfer scheme. The move, which is expected to be considered by Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on June 9, is aimed at checking use of kerosene for fuel adulteration and reduce financial...
More »Make food subsidy self-selecting by Subir Roy
The management of food and poverty in India is getting increasingly unreal. On the one hand, the country has a bumper harvest with every likelihood of the grain mountain to be procured adding to the existing mountain of official stocks. Without adequate storage space, a not-so-insignificant part of it will rot and go to waste. On the other hand, the government will not allow wheat exports until it is clear...
More »Counting Poorly by Anuradha Raman
The Planning Commission’s definition of poverty is inexplicable In the urban sprawl that is Delhi, as in any other metro in the country, earning no more than Rs 25 per day with a family to support would prove nightmarish. Food and clothes have to be bought, there may be school-going children, colds, fevers or upset stomachs to get treated, someone with a chronic problem needing long-term treatment. Surely, someone living...
More »BPL health insurance fails in Kalahandi
-Express News Service The benefits under the Rashtriya Suraksha Bima Yojana (RSBY) have failed to trickle down to the beneficiaries the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. Though launched as a pilot project in Kalahandi in November 2009, poor management and lack of awareness among the BPL beneficiaries have marred the cashless treatment provision. Out of the surveyed 2,24,859 BPL families, 1,03,083 families were enrolled in 20092010. Ironically, in the first year, only 1,513...
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