Greater Noida: Noble laureate Amratya Sen on Saturday said it is unfortunate that government has not been able to push through the Food Security Bill that sought to provide subsidised foodgrains to people below poverty line.
"It is unfortunate that we are not able to pass the Food Security Bill because Parliament is not able to meet", he said during a seminar at the ADB annual meet here. He further said the country needs to set its priority right and focus on the real issues concerning the people. "We have to think about getting our priorities right," Sen said.
The government, which had introduced Food Security Bill in the Lok Sabha in 2011, could not get it passed with the opposition stalling the proceedings in the House over some issue or the other. The proposed Food Bill, the UPA Government's ambitious social welfare programme, aims to provide legal right over subsidised foodgrains to 67 per cent of the population.
It seeks to provide a provide uniform allocation of 5 kg foodgrains (per person) at fixed rate of of Rs 3 (rice), Rs 2 (wheat) and Rs 1 (coarse grains) per kg to 67 per cent of the country's population. At the proposed coverage of entitlement, total estimated annual foodgrains requirement is 61.23 million tonnes and is likely to cost the exchequer Rs 1,24,724 crore....
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08:58 PM, May 04, 2013
Bangkok: India on Monday said that with continuous and concerted efforts, people living below poverty line will be down to 26.7 per cent by 2015, but improving sanitation facilities in the country still remains a challenge. The visiting Minister of State for Commerce and Industry of India, Dr Dagubatti Purandeswari told the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) meet here that for a country...
02:35 PM, Apr 29, 2013
The Cabinet has cleared the UPA's gamechanger Food Security Bill. The revised Bill was cleared by the Cabinet without any further changes. The Food Security Bill seeks to provide for uniform 5 kg of foodgrains per month per person at a highly subsidised price of Rs 1-3 per kg to two-thirds of the country's population. ...
05:30 PM, Mar 19, 2013
UPA II's most ambitious bill, the Food Bill, is a step closer to becoming law. The Cabinet is meeting amidst strong hopes that it will clear the Food Bill for passing in Parliament. The Congress believes the Food Bill, which was first tabled in 2011 will be a game changer. ...
07:31 AM, Mar 18, 2013
New Delhi: Every day some 3,000 Indian children die from illnesses related to malnutrition, and yet countless heaps of rodent-infested wheat and rice are rotting in fields across the north of their own country. It is an extraordinary paradox created by a rigid regime of subsidies for grain farmers, a woeful lack of storage facilities and an inefficient, corruption-plagued public distribution system that fails millions of impoverished people. And it...
02:40 PM, Jul 02, 2012
New Delhi: Planning Commission, which is mired in a controversy over what constitutes the poverty line, has spent a whopping Rs 35 lakh for renovation of two toilets in New Delhi, an RTI reply has revealed. The Commission, which came up with a controversial poverty line figure of Rs 28 per day for an individual, has spent Rs 30 lakh for the renovation of the toilets on the lines of...
06:04 PM, Jun 05, 2012
Hyderabad: Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Saturday took a dig at MPs who criticised the methodology adopted by the Tendulkar Committee for redefining the term poor, saying members raising the issue were probably only aware of Sachin Tendulkar, not Suresh Tendulkar. "Those Members of Parliament may probably have thought it is Sachin Tendulkar. They did not know Suresh Tendulkar," Ramesh told reporters when asked several MPs have criticised...
10:42 PM, Apr 07, 2012
Hyderabad: Terming the comments on the below poverty line (BPL) issue as "unprincipled publicity campaign", Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Saturday said the rate of poverty decline doubled during the rule of the UPA Government as compared to the pre-UPA regime. "In the pre-UPA period the decline in poverty was taking place at 0.74 per cent per year. After 2004 it is taking place at 1.5...
06:58 PM, Apr 07, 2012
The great Mughal emperor Akbar once asked if there was any man in his court unbound by his wife's command. The huge mass of his courtiers and public was stunned and stood huddled together barring one meek-looking man, who stepped away and stood alone. Akbar was curious and asked how such a submissive fellow was the only one brave enough to defy his wife. "I am not defying my wife,...
12:54 PM, Apr 07, 2012
New Delhi: Lauding India for managing to reduce poverty, World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Friday said that controversy over poverty line of Rs 28.65 daily consumption was "overdone". "I have to tell you frankly that I think, it has been overdone," he said when asked about his views on the Planning Commission latest poverty estimates which received widespread criticism within and outside Parliament. The good news, Zoellick said, is...
07:46 PM, Mar 30, 2012
Recently the government announced that poverty had declined in India. This had many people dancing (literally) with joy. To find out more, let Panditji tell ...
02:50 PM, Mar 27, 2012
Cyrus Broacha also talks about Trinamool Congress, Railways, Asia Cup, Agent Vinod and much more. ...
05:47 PM, Mar 25, 2012
The Planning Commission is back in the news. The latest round of poverty levels that have been disclosed have created another debate in the country. ...
02:00 PM, Mar 23, 2012
New Delhi: A new committee will be set up to reassess poverty estimates, according to sources. The committee is to be set up by the Planning Commission. An announcement is likely to made at 4 pm on Thursday. The government has been facing flak over what exactly constitutes poverty and what are the factors that decide the poverty line. This came after the Planning Commission said that the poverty in...
02:30 PM, Mar 22, 2012
Mumbai: The World Bank will not reduce its financial assistance at the moment to India for poverty alleviation measures because official data has shown the number of poor people has declined. The international funding agency takes a long-term view on its commitments and the poverty data released on Monday will not have any bearing on that commitment, World Bank (WB) Country Head N Roberto Zagha told PTI on the sidelines...
03:02 AM, Mar 22, 2012
Patna: Flaying the Planning Commission's assessment that a person earning Rs 29 daily should not be deemed as poor, the CPI on Wednesday described the panel as a club of "anti-poor" people. CPI national secretary Atul Kumar Anjaan said it was "ridiculous" that the Planning Commission has described a person earning Rs 29 a day as not poor. "It will be appropriate to describe the commission as a club of...
01:42 AM, Mar 22, 2012
Planning Commission on Monday further reduced poverty line to Rs 28.65 per capita daily consumption in cities and Rs 22.42 in rural areas, scaling down India's poverty ratio to 29.8 per cent in 2009-10. ...
11:55 PM, Mar 21, 2012
New Delhi: If you could spend more than Rs 28 per day and lived in a town, or Rs 22 per day and lived in a village, you were above the poverty line. This is Planning Commission's new poverty line for the year 2009-2010. According to its most recent estimates, 52 million people moved out of poverty between 2005 and 2010. For rural areas, poverty is down from 42% to...
11:23 PM, Mar 21, 2012
Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said he is open to revising the Rs 29 per day cut off for the poverty line. ...
07:13 PM, Mar 21, 2012
The Planning Commission has said that the poverty in India has come down in the country during the 2009-2010 period. According to its latest report, the Commission said more than 8 per cent of India has come above the poverty line in five years. Tonight at 10 pm CNN-IBN's Deputy Editor Sagarika Ghose discusses with a panel of experts, has poverty declined in India?
12:57 PM, Mar 21, 2012
