The Centre’s current food subsidy burden stands at roughly Rs. 90,000 crores, which will shoot up to `1,10,000 crores if the proposed provisions of the Food Bill are implemented.

“We are expecting the ministry of rural development to wrap up their ongoing Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) by the first quarter of the next year by which we expect to get the parliamentary nod for the Food Bill also. Thus, we will be in a position to roll out the legal foodgrain entitlement effectively based on fresh data on economic deprivation,” said a senior official.

After announcing the direct cash transfer rollout from January 1, the focus has come back on the Food Security Bill, for which the UPA government is looking at the Budget Session for passage. The parliamentary standing committee is learnt to have given its report to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.

Along with direct cash transfer, the UPA is banking on the Food and Land Bills to yield the Congress rich dividends. “The standing committee report could be tabled in the Lok Sabha this week. The government will (then) move to the Cabinet with its final draft,” a senior official said.

Five years after the launch of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) on which the Centre has spent over `1,10,700 crores so far, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will release a comprehensive review of the performance of the flagship scheme on Saturday.

The release of the review report is coming at a time when the job demands within MNREGA have seen more than 20 per cent decline in the last financial year, while a number of states could not spend their allocated funds under the flagship scheme.

After patting on the back by announcing that he would give one per cent of the annual budget of the ministry for rural development (`99,000 crores) to the ministry of panchayati raj, Union minister Jairam Ramesh is faced with reality check — that it is not he who can do so, but Parliament only.

A few weeks ago, Union minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh announced that one per cent of his ministry’s annual budget, which would come to about `990 crores, would be given to the panchayati raj ministry.

After hitting headlines on lack of toilets and roping in filmstars Vidya Balan and Shah rukh Khan for campaign, Union minister of rural development Jairam Ramesh has got an “assurance” from the Planning Commission for a total allocation of a whopping Rs36,000 crores in the 12th five-year plan for Total Sanitation Campaign, which is now being restructured, against mere Rs7,816 crores in the 11th five-year plan.

In a move which may open a Pandora’s box for the Centre, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has sought coal at a special subsidised rate for local consumption from the Planning Commission. Ms Banerjee told Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia that since 80 per cent of coal is sourced from West Bengal, the state should be given the mineral at a special subsidised rate.

Sources said that the Planning Commission members were taken aback by the demand of the temperamental West Bengal chief minister, as the move if at all considered could lead to similar demands from other coal mining states like Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh appears to have set off a controversy with his remark, that “women demand mobile phones but not toilets”.

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

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s flexing of the muscle appears to be yielding dividend, as the state after securing an economic package of `8,750 crores from the Centre is soon likely t

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s move to stall decision on the National Food Security Bill by writing a letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh just on the eve of the Cabinet meeting appears to have been more for political reasons than any serious objections.

Sources in the food ministry said that the Cabinet note on the Food Bill had included four key demands of the West Bengal government, which were already agreed upon by the Centre.