50 lakh tonnes of rice and wheat for all States/Union Territories at BPL prices Need to strike a balance between excess procurement and storage: Justice Bhandari ‘Whatever you procure, store it properly. The rest you can distribute to starving people' Responding to the concern expressed by the Supreme Court over malnutrition and starvation deaths, the Centre on Tuesday informed it of the decision to make an additional allocation of 50 lakh tonnes of...
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Rs 20/day is cutoff for urban poverty: Plan panel by Nitin Sethi
An urban Indian spending a penny more than Rs 578 a month – roughly Rs 20 a day – on all his basic needs cannot be termed poor and would not receive social benefits and subsidies given by the Centre to BPL citizens, the Planning Commission has said. The commission told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that a city dweller cannot be termed poor if his average monthly spends exceed Rs...
More »BPL census set to go digital way by Ruhi Tewari & Surabhi Agarwal
Govt orders 600,000 hand-held electronic devices to reduce scope for error and expedite the census process For the first time, the census to identify below poverty line (BPL) families will be conducted using hand-held electronic devices. The initiative of the rural development ministry is expected to reduce scope for error and expedite the census process. The identification of BPL households is critical for individuals to be eligible for welfare programmes such as getting...
More »EGoM to discuss proposed Food Bill on Monday
An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on Food is scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss the proposed National Food Security Bill and take a view on the suggestions made by the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council (NAC) and Rangarajan Panel. According to sources, the Food Ministry will place the reports of both the NAC and the Prime Minister’s panel headed by PMEAC chairman C Rangarajan before the EGoM for guidance. The...
More »5 million tonnes of additional foodgrains for BPL families
To make storage space available for the fresh rabi harvest, the Union government has decided to allocate an additional 5 million tonnes of wheat and rice to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) population under the public distribution system (PDS). The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, cleared the Food Ministry's proposal at a meeting on Monday. The additional foodgrains will be made available from June 1 over...
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