The National Advisory Council (NAC) will meet here on Friday to discuss the working group's draft of the National Food Security Bill. The draft suggests the setting up of an autonomous body for grievance redress and enforcement of penalties. The authority could function along the lines of the national and State-level commissions set up under the Right to Information Act. The draft Bill defines the penalties for violations of the Act, and...

Maharashtra weeded out 2.9 million bogus ration cards last year, launching an identity verification drive to make the system foolproof. Residents had to provide electoral roll numbers, electricity bills and rent receipts to receive a ration card. Migrants had to present an official document confirming their change in residence. That led to the exclusion of many poor, homeless and migrant families as they lacked the necessary papers. This is the kind...

India's Public Distribution System (PDS) has been in a bad shape for decades, often thought to be beyond repair. Recent experience, however, suggests otherwise. Political will, increased transparency and community participation have led to an amazing revival of the PDS in Chhattisgarh though the state has only shown contempt for people's rights in other contexts… Somehow, the PDS became a political priority in Chhattisgarh and a decision was made to turn...

Can we afford to leave MG-NREGA alone? Why is the civil society crying foul? Are the rural activists demanding too much? Is the UPA-II trying to take back what UPA-I gave before the elections? Let us face it, the MG-NREGA is in a big crisis. NAC members like Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze have alleged (See links below) that the present remuneration of rural workers is declining by the day and it...

The state government has been accused of failing to provide vital information about PDS (public distribution system) to the ration card holders. This despite strict directives from the Union government, said Vivek Velankar of the Sajag Nagrik Manch. "The provision could not be implemented because the state has failed to fix the fees to be charged to the ration card holders for obtaining such information," said Velankar. The directives issued in 2004...