Move unlikely soon, as proposed Food Security Bill promises grain at rates lower than current ones at ration shops

The Centre is considering raising the prices of wheat and rice distributed through ration shops to bring down its food subsidy bill. Before 2010, proposals to increase the price of grains sold through ration shops for above poverty line (APL) families were placed before the cabinet once almost every six months, without any success. The price has not been changed since 2002.

KOCHI: The much-hyped Suchitwa Mission’s sanitation project for the coastal panchayats of Chellanam, Kumbalangi and Kumbalam still remains on paper. With the project delaying indefinitely, the chances of it bringing any relief to the people in these places during monsoon seems remote. These three panchayats have been reeling under acute sanitation issues owing to their geographical position and absence of modern septic tanks. Every monsoon, the issues worsen due to water logging and the low-lying landscape of the areas.

In the first example of his intention to take “difficult decisions” to contain the ballooning subsidy burden to control the fiscal deficit, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday denied permis

Allaying fears that the ambitious food security bill may not be enacted in the next financial year due to meagre allocation for food subsidy in the Budget, the government on Wednesday said the legislation was expected to implemented by December-end.

The food ministry is mulling changes in various set-ups like the public distribution system for the smooth execution of a food security law, but the Act would increase the food subsidy considerably, almost by 50 per cent over the Budget allocation.

Implementation of the National Food Security Bill will entail a subsidy of a whopping Rs 1.12 lakh crore, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister KV Thomas informed the Rajya Sabha today.

Food subsidy as per 1993-94 poverty line and 2000 population census is Rs 88,976 crore and as per the 2011 census it would be Rs 197,096 crore, he said during Question Hour.

KOLKATA, 15 MARCH: In the middle of the ruckus over the hike in passenger fares in the Railway Budget, the Trinamul Congress has fired another salvo, instructing its Parliamentary party to take up

New Delhi Food minister K V Thomas on Thursday ruled out clearance of food security Bill in the ongoing Budget session of Parliament, saying consultations are still on to sort out problems raised by states and that it can be taken up only in the next Monsoon session.

“How can it come in the Budget session...Parliamentary Standing Committee is yet to submit its report,” Thomas said on the sidelines of a function of food and consumer affairs ministry here.

Over 13 lakh farmers bring their produce to Punjab’s foodgrain mandis twice every year, each in five to seven consignments.

Framework of corpus in nascent stage, to come up in 2012-13 Budget

The government is planning to come up with a price protection fund to cushion the burden of food subsidy, which is expected to grow manifold under the new Food Security Bill. The proposed fund, under the ministry of food and consumer affairs, is a Budget proposal for 2012-13.

Even as the UPA government struggles to bridge differences between key UPA constituents on the need to usher in the Food Security Act — with cost of implementing it and revamping the Public Distrib