The fertiliser ministry may come up with guidelines for the new subsidy policy in the next two months, whereby the dole out amount is likely to be fixed by the government in advance, throwing fertiliser prices open to change in sync with market realities.

No swine flu (H1N1 influenza) case has been reported from any part of Assam till date, asserted Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in the Assam Assembly today. Replying to Zero Hour questions by Dr Kamala Kalita (AGP) and Mohibul Haque (Ind), the Minister said that the Government has taken all precautionary measures to prevent outbreak of the disease.

Terms to be spelt out soon but flour mills see little scope.

MUMBAI: Impressed by the success of the pilot project launched at the tribal Surgana village, Nashik district in June 2007, the Centre is now considering the extension of the home delivery system of foodgrains under the public distribution scheme (PDS) throughout the country in a phased manner.

Minister of State for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Paras Jain held formal talks with senior departmental officers here today about various ongoing schemes. Jain instructed the officers to ensure easy supply of subsidised food grains to the BPL cardholders. Efforts should also be undertaken to make the public distribution system transparent and effective.

Asks FCI to speed up movement of stocks

The Punjab Food and Supplies Department has requested the Centre to allow border trade of wheat to Pakistan and Afghanistan through the Wagah land route to clear the huge wheat stocks lying in the state.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that red wheat would not be distributed through fair price shops from next month. Instead, good quality wheat procured on support price would be distributed under Mukhya Mantri Annapurna Yojana. The Chief Minister reviewed the implementation of Mukhya Mantri Annapurna Yojana here at Mantralaya today. He said that distribution of procured quality wheat would be started by organising a function at every district headquarter from next month.

Delay on the part of State governments to pick up their allocation for the Mid-Day Meal programme in April has cost them dear. As per a directive of the Union Food Ministry, the allocation for the first month of this fiscal has lapsed; a decision that has not gone down too well with the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry. While HRD Ministry appreciates the rationale in the Food Ministry's contention that there should not be any retrospective lifting of foodgrains, it is of the view that the decision should not be forced upon States without a warning.

Unwilling to commit to a definite view on the fate of forward trading in essential commodities, food minister Sharad Pawar told the Rajya Sabha that "there are a lot of conflicting views'. Mr Pawar's vacillation comes in the wake of indication that the Abhijit Sen Committee is likely to take a safe view that a given available data, there appears to be no corelation between futures trading and increase in essential commodity prices.

The government has no immediate plan to import wheat as it is confident of procuring enough quantity for the buffer stock, agriculture and food minister Sharad Pawar said here on Monday.