A“reworked and realistic” food guarantee scheme is on the anvil. The Suresh Tendulkar panel report is likely to form the basis for poverty estimation required for this. A hint to this effect came during a meeting of the core group of chief ministers on price rise chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on Thursday. The government has been under pressure from state governments to make a fresh BPL assessment....
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Food subsidy bill to rise by Rs 6,000 crore: Montek
Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Monday told NDTV that the food subsidy bill is set to rise by Rs 6,000 crore due to an upward revision in the number of families living below poverty line. Montek said that the plan panel would revise BPL count up from 6.5 crore to 7.4 crore families. The fresh estimate could be based on Suresh Tendulkar's poverty formula, he added. Earlier, the government said that it needs...
More »About 100 crorepatis in Rajya Sabha; Rahul Bajaj richest
About 100 Rajya Sabha members have declared their assets worth more than Rs1 crore with independent Parliamentarian from Maharashtra Rahul Bajaj being the richest. According to an analysis by an NGO, renowned industrialist Bajaj has declared his movable and immovable assets worth over Rs300 crore followed by Janta Dal (Secular) MP M A M Ramaswamy (Karnataka) and T Subramani Reddy of Congress (Andhra Pradesh) who have declared assets of more than...
More »Hoarders may face state crackdown by Santosh K. Joy, Liz Mathew and Sanjiv Shankaran
In an all-too-rare political consensus, India’s Central government and 10 states on Thursday decided to take a call in the following few weeks on reintroducing harsh laws that will severely punish hoarders in order to mitigate food inflation. A core committee comprising representatives of the states and the Centre, and led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, appointed three sub-groups to come up with a solution within 45 days. One of the...
More »Blinkered vision by Vandana Prasad
If recent indicators are anything to go by – the failure to keep food prices down, the proposed national food security Act, the failure to ensure even minimum wages to construction workers at projects for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, to recount a few – it seems the country has given up even the pretence of caring about its children or their crippling, unbudging state of malnutrition. Leaders,...
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