While hearing a matter relating to encroachment on railway land in Gujarat, the apex court observed that when the Constitution recognises rule of law, it has to be adhered to by one and all.
In the three months leading up to the Assembly elections, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's government distributed over 1.4 million tonnes (MT) of wheat, 0.95 MT of rice, 0.10 MT of chana (gram), 101.9 million litres of soybean oil and 100,000 tonnes of salt as free ration. This was part of the Covid relief package, officials said.
Urban households having five members with daily consumption basket of food and other items of more than Rs 161 will not be entitled to benefits provided to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families, as per the Plan panel's latest definition of poverty.
The country's present growth rate is 7.6% and its economy is $1.7 trillion.
'The decision to supply free food grains is not an economically sound decision because the government will find it very difficult in future to charge anything for food grains.'
Functioning in several departments related to revenue collection has also been affected. Revenue collection has reduced by Rs 17,000 crore in March.
With an aim to give pani puri a ststus, 3 MBA graduates have started Poochka & Co.
To translate into more spending on education, health, and nutritious food.
After nine years in power, the United Progressive Alliance faces the question of credibility, says Aditi Phadnis
Punjab's 117 assembly seats are going to be a keenly-watched contest with the Congress, the AAP, the SAD-BSP alliance, and the BJP-PLC-SAD (Sanyukt) battling to form the government in the state, with a probable entry of farmers' front in the form of Sanyukt Samaj Morcha.
The government is also contemplating amendments to other two pension schemes to make widows eligible for it at 18 years instead of present age cap of 40, and disabled with 40 per cent disability qualify for it instead of 80 per cent.
TCS has got a special recognition for its initiative to the lift of one million people in the inner part of India, by reaching out to the educated among the backward community and training them as well as making them economically-active through employment, TCS' Singapore-based President Vish Iyer told PTI on Monday.
Indira Awaas Yojana, a social welfare programme started to provide homes to the poorest of the poor, has fallen prey to rampant corruption in Bihar, the latest Comptroller and Auditor General report has said.
Men don't have a uterus -- that's the universal truth. But in Bihar's Samastipur district, officials and doctors have, on paper, removed uteruses of more than a dozen men on paper to usurp the health insurance money provided under Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna.
The United Progressive Alliance government, led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has three more ambitious plans for Below Poverty Line families, a source in the government told rediff.com
A Parliamentary panel suggested scrapping separate foodgrain rate and quota for poor and general public and said the UPA's ambitious Food Bill should guarantee 5 kg of rice and wheat to all beneficiaries at uniform price of Rs 3 and Rs 2 per kg, respectively.
New census will include questions about religion and castes.
The state of Bihar will now monitor the public distribution system (PDS) through laptops to check corruption and to provide help to those living below poverty line (BPL), to get their monthly quota of essential commodities including food grain and kerosene oil, officials said.
Concerned over the misuse of subsidies provided under various schemes, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said the government will provide a direct cash subsidy on kerosene and fertilisers to the poor from March next year.
A nationwide socio-economic and caste census to identify people living below poverty line (BPL) was on Wednesday flagged off from Shankhola, a remote tribal hamlet in Tripura West district.
The government is likely to give a legal right to food to both priority and general categories of the population under the proposed National Food Security Act, as suggested by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC).
The government on Friday decided to allocate five million tonnes of additional wheat and rice for distribution through ration shops to BPL families, giving them some relief from high food inflation.
The controversial Government affidavit on Below Poverty Line cap was condemned by Opposition today as an "insult and betrayal" of the poor and also slammed by a key United Progressive Alliance ally Nationalist Congress Party.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up the Centre for limiting the number of below poverty line (PDS) people in a state to 36 per cent of its population as per the Planning Commission's recommendations.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said government will soon come out with a draft Food Security Bill.
In line with the industry expectations, the government has indicated that it is actively considering extension of the NBS regime to cover urea.
Jammu and Kashmir has spent Rs 12 crore on the maintenance and operation of Omar Abdullah's aircraft since he became the chief minister in January 2009.
The caste and Below Poverty Line census has been suspended in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh by Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, though it goes on nonstop in Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur also have simultaneous elections.
After giving a call to Maoists to lay down arms, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday turned her attention to the poorest of the poor in 'Junglemahal' by announcing that all tribals in the three districts would be included in the below poverty line (BPL) list.
The government on Friday said it intended extending coverage of its flagship health insurance scheme for poor families to auto-rickshaw drivers, cycle rickshaw pullers, street vendors and rag-pickers.
A head count to identify the poor, including their caste and religion, was on Thursday approved by the government, which aims at ensuring that the benefits of the targeted subsidy programme reach them. A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave its nod for conducting a census in rural and urban areas to identify those living below poverty line. The enumeration on the basis of caste and religion would be part of the census.
Ramesh also assured that the Planning Commission methodology on BPL yardstick would not be implemented and its Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had already clarified last week regarding the controversy generated from the Rs 32 (urban) and Rs 26 (rural areas) as the cut off mark for BPL families.
Embarrassed by the debate on whether its suggestion that a human being can live on Rs 32 a day in urban India, the Plan panel has said those who are not really poor should be excluded from being enumerated as being poor.
On the complaint of shortage of foodgrain, the minister said lifting of foodgrain by states/Union Territories under TPDS and other welfare schemes has been less than the allocation made to them.
Expressing serious concern over the growing instances of starvation deaths in the country, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said there cannot be "two Indias" divided between the elite and the poor.
The demand for cash transfers was highest in Bihar at 54 per cent, followed by 34 per cent in Uttar Pradesh and 22 per cent in Jharkhand, where the access to PDS foodgrain was found limited.
The government is undecided on the criteria to be used to identify families living below poverty line in India.
Expanding its commitment to provide subsidised foodgrain to the poor, the Manmohan Singh government is looking at a host of social sector initiatives along with its soon-to-be-unveiled Food Security Bill.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the government would follow an inclusive policy wherein both APL and below poverty line families will get foodgrains at cheaper rates. He added that the annual subsidy burden on the government would come around to Rs 50,000 crore.
The Food Security Act as proposed by the UPA government assures rice/wheat at Rs 3 a kg to BPL families as a matter of legal right.
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