When noted economist Jean Dreze visited Surguja in Chhattisgarh a decade ago, its utterly non-functional Public Distribution System (PDS) looked like especially “designed to fail.” The National Advisory Committee member has written in a recent article that the ration shop owners illegally sold the grain meant for the poor and “hunger haunted the land.” But that was then. The economist was pleasantly shocked to see the transformation this time. “Ten years...

In pushing for a greatly truncated PDS, the Food Security Bill proposed by the NAC, which has many right-to-food activists, undermines the PDS itself. ENSURING food security was the big promise of United Progressive Alliance-2. The promise to enact legislation to ensure a minimum quantity of affordable food to all poor households in the country was part of the election manifesto of the Congress party that leads the government. The 100-day...

The DMK government has failed to prevent smuggling of food items meant for public distribution, AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa alleged on Wednesday. “Though the government has issued a stringent warning against smugglers, not a day passes without smuggling of ration items. The warning remains on paper and no action has been taken against those who are behind the illegal act,” she said in a statement here. Recalling the collision involving a truck...

In a day-long operation, the Food Cell police and District Civil Supply officials unearthed over 2,000 litres of kerosene stored in four places, including private godowns here on Tuesday. Seven persons were held while two others are absconding. Collector C. Kamaraj had directed the officials to keep a close vigil on the movement of essential commodities from various godowns to ration shops. “The government is keen on ensuring that the...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday virtually ticked off the Supreme Court, saying that it "should not get into policy formation". The trigger for this rebuke was the apex court's anger at grains rotting in FCI and government godowns, and its direction to agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to distribute grains for free to families living below the poverty line. Talking to a group of editors on Monday morning, Singh said...