The Union Law Ministry’s opinion is that the food security legislation covers not just Indians but also foreign nationals and refugees.

The ministry’s legal affairs department gave this opinion in the backdrop of a 2012 petition by the Mool Pravah Akhil Bharat Nepal Ekta Samaj, saying that “the provisions of National Food Security Act are not only applicable to Indian citizens but also to foreign nationals legally residing in India”.

26,500 cr to be spent on managing costs and losses of the public distribution system

Implementation of food security law will cost . 88,500 crore in 2014-15 almost same as the total food subsidy last year, giving a push to the UPA government’s ambitious plan to meet the basic food requirements of every individual.

The expenditure on subsidies for food, fertiliser and fuel for 2014-15 is budgeted at Rs 2,46,397 crore, as against Rs 2,45,452 crore in the revised estimates

The biggest mystery on the day of the interim Budget had to do with the rollovers for the next financial year on the subsidy front. While the fertiliser, food and petroleum sectors were demanding more money, Finance Minister P Chidambaram insisted that there would be no rollovers, except for Rs 35,000 crore on fuel subsidy.

Koraput district in Odisha was conferred the national award under the schemes District award for effective initiatives in National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) administration in the 9th

'Padithara Khathi', Karnataka government's ambitious food security scheme that ensures delivery of foodgrains at fair price shops on specific dates under the public distribution system (PDS) has be

Aimed to revamp the public distribution system across the state, the Chhattisgarh government had announced to launch the CORE PDS in four new cities.

The CORE PDS is based on the latest information technology tools: smart cards, hand-held point-of-sale devices at ration shops and servers that store all data and monitor all transactions. The process weed out pilferage to the black market, remove corruption and make life hassle-free for poor folks.

This will further inflate the Centre's subsidy calculation on account of the new law, once it is implemented

The central government has decided to widen the acceptability of its biggest social security initiative, the National Food Security Act, by agreeing to equally share the financial burden of transportation of grain and commission for ration-shop owners with state governments.

Centre will launch pilot project in State soon: K.V. Thomas

Union Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs K.V. Thomas said here on Saturday that the Centre would soon launch the pilot project of distributing 5-kg packets of rice to consumers in Kerala through the Public Distribution System as part of supplying quality rice and checking irregularities. This would replace the existing practice of transporting grains in 50-kg bags.