Parliament's Standing Committee also proposed the State Food Commissions be vested with powers to check the quality of foodgrains before delivery from the central government.

Parliament's Standing Committee also proposed the State Food Commissions be vested with powers to check the quality of foodgrains before delivery from the central government

If the suggestions of Parliament’s standing committee on food are incorporated in the final version of the ambitious Food Security Bill, then beneficiaries of the Public Distribution System ( PDS) will for the first time have a right to reject inferior quality foodgrains. The committee, which presented its report to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar yesterday, has said the central government should prescribe a minimum quality norm for grain to be distributed under the proposed law.

As the Parliamentary standing committee examining the National Food Security Bill recommended scrapping of ‘general’ and ‘priority’ categorisation and a uniform monthly legal entitlement of 5 kg fo

The Indian government is sitting on one of world's biggest hoards of food grains, about 667 lakh tons as of January 1, 2013.

Free milk project for children held up for want of funds, says KMF chief

Milk unions in the State cumulatively owe as much as Rs 117 crore to dairy farmers, Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) chairperson G Somashekhara Reddy has said. Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, Reddy said the KMF has borrowed Rs 160 crore from HDFC Bank at 12 per cent interest to pay off the dues to dairy farmers.

Recommends 5 kg of foodgrains, down from the earlier 7 kg

A day before the Congress’s ‘Chintan Shivir’, a Parliament Standing Committee on Thursday presented the much-awaited report on the Food Security Bill, giving legal entitlement of uniform five kg of foodgrains to 75 per cent of the country’s rural population and 50 per cent of the urban population without any distinction. The grains will be distributed at a flat rate of Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 for wheat and Rs 1 per kg for coarse cereals.

New Delhi: Says direct cash transfer in lieu of grain currently not desirable

A Parliamentary panel on the food security Bill has suggested providing legal entitlement of 5 kg of heavily-subsidised grain to each beneficiary per month, which would cover 67% of the country's population. The Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, headed by Vilas Muttemwar, also said the direct cash transfer in lieu of grain entitlements at this juncture may not be desirable, suggesting that banking infrastructure and accessibility to banking facility need to be made available throughout India before introducing the cash transfer.

Recommends a mandatory coverage of 67 per cent of population for subsidised grains

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Food has recommended a mandatory coverage of 67 per cent of the country’s population for subsidised rice, wheat and millets under the National Food Security Bill with a reduced and uniform monthly entitlement of 5 kg per person. As opposed to an overwhelming demand from States and civil society groups for universal public distribution system to ensure “food and nutrition security,” the UPA government’s ambitious Bill proposes coverage of 75 per cent rural and 50 per cent urban population at 2011 census figures.

The parliamentary panel reviewing the National Food Security Bill, 2011, is understood have recommended that states should be allowed to prescribe guidelines for identification of 'priority' and 'general' households for subsidised foodgrains.

The panel chaired by Lok Sabha MP Vilas Muttemwar has also asked the government to devise a clearly defined criteria in consultation with the states to identify those outside the ambit of the scheme, seeking to expand the scope of existing public distribution system.