Union Food Ministry to convene consultation of its officials with NAC and EAC representatives Pressure from the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) on the new Union Food Minister, K.V. Thomas, to accept its recommendations rather than the watered down version of the Rangarajan panel, which was set up to examine the NAC's recommendations, appears to be working. Government sources told The Hindu that the Union Food Ministry is hoping to shortly...
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NAC forces govt to act on manual scavenging by Swaraj Thapa
As a consequence of a stinging reminder from the National Advisory Council headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on still prevalent manual scavenging, an interministerial group headed by Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Mukul Wasnik on Friday decided to set a fresh self-imposed deadline to end the shameful practice identified with only specific communities in society.The meeting also decided to set a timetable to end the system of constructing dry...
More »'Centre must add purpose clause to RTI Act' by Prafulla Marpakwar
Given the doubts raised by a section of chief ministers, the Centre is planning to amend the Right to Information (RTI) Act to curb its misuse. "Our information is that a group of chief ministers has approached the Centre for amending the RTI Act. In several cases, it was used to settle personal scores by rival businessmen, builders and politicians," a senior information commissioner told TOI on Wednesday. The information...
More »Food subsidy to be Rs 1,10,600 cr if NAC desire is met by Sruthijith KK
The total food subsidy bill will balloon to 1,10,600 crore if entitlements recommended by the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council are incorporated into the Food Security Bill , the Ministry of Food And Public Distribution has estimated. The subsidy bill in the initial phase will be 93,000 crore. The ministry's estimates are significantly higher than the ones made by both NAC and the Rangarajan panel that studied the NAC recommendations. The ministry,...
More »After POSCO, Chiria, Jindal puts Jairam Ramesh on backfoot by Sreejiraj Eluvangal
After giving clearance to Chiria mines and Korean giant POSCO’s steel plant s on “developmental” grounds, the environment ministry under Jairam Ramesh has once again been pushed to the backfoot — this time by Congress Member of Parliament Naveen Jindal’s Jindal Steel & Power. The ministry on Monday announced it was withdrawing its earlier threat to withdraw environmental clearance to Jindal’s Rs25,000 crore steel and power plant in Angul, Orissa. The ministry...
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