New Delhi, Feb.

New Delhi The 2012-13 Budget may not have to provide as big a jump in the food subsidy bill as expected earlier.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday urged states and Union territories to hasten reforms in the public distribution system (PDS) for the effective implementation of the Food Security Bill.

Inaugurating a two-day conference of chief secretaries of states and Union territories, the prime minister said, “I would urge you to pay urgent attention to end-to-end computerisation of the PDS. We should be in a position to effectively implement the Food Security Bill by the time it becomes an Act of Parliament.”

State-owned oil companies today snapped supplies of jet fuel to Air India for failing to honour payments even after 90-day credit period, but the ailing national carrier said it has paid Rs 180 cro

Health facilities, adequate compensation must be provided

Taking a serious note of the increasing silicosis-related deaths in the country, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has recommended that silicosis be made a notifiable disease. Once notified, all government and private health facilities will have to report confirmed as well as suspected silicosis cases to the government.

Wary of the National Food Security Bill meeting the fate of the Lokpal Bill, the Centre appears to have set a target of August 15 to unveil the law, with the hope that a political way out would be

To banish hunger and malnutrition from the country, Parliament is likely to pass the National Food Security Bill (NFSB).

PUDUCHERRY: CPI national secretary D Raja, on Tuesday, demanded that the central governement formulate a comprehensive nuclear policy.