-TheWire.in The proposed amendments not only make approaching the information commission more cumbersome and legalistic but also defy the diktat of the Supreme Court. The RTI Act has undoubtedly been one of the most empowering legislations for Indians. According to estimates, four to six million information applications are filed every year, making the Indian RTI Act the world’s most extensively used transparency legislation. National assessments have shown that a large number of...
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Why are Drought-Affected States not Lifting Sufficient Food Grain: Supreme Court
-IANS The Supreme Court on Thursday sought response from 13 drought-affected states as to why they were not lifting enough food grain to made available at subsidised rates to the priority and vulnerable sections of the people in affected areas. The bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice N.V. Ramana sought response from the 13 states as NGO Swaraj Abhiyan told the court that they were not lifting sufficient food grains...
More »Bringing PDS out of the abyss -Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri
-Deccan Herald System overhaul: Transparency measures with strong accountability mechanisms can usher in change The National Food Security Act (NFSA) passed in 2013 gives statutory backing to the Public Distribution System (PDS). Up to 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population is entitled to receive food grain under the Act. Beneficiaries are categorised into Priority Households, entitled to 5 kg of subsidised grains per person per month, and Antyodaya...
More »How Tamil Nadu fell in line on Food Security Act -T Ramakrishnan
-The Hindu “State government will combine the Act’s essential provisions with some of its traditional practices” Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government had faced Hobson’s choice before it decided to implement the National Food Security Act (NFSA). A few weeks ago, the government was administered a shock when it got a letter from the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, stating that with effect from November, the State would no...
More »Extending food security
-The Hindu The Centre’s coercive method has worked. Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the two States that were holding out against pressure from New Delhi to implement the National Food Security Act (NFSA), have also fallen in line. By threatening to raise the price at which it was allocating foodgrains if they did not implement the law, the Centre has managed to get these two States to agree to the implementation of the Act...
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