After nine years in power, the United Progressive Alliance faces the question of credibility, says Aditi Phadnis
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.
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.
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.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said government will soon come out with a draft Food Security Bill.
High growth sustained in first half of FY'08 at 9.1 pc.
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.
The study of the Targeted Public Distribution System, which covered 18 states, held that though the offtake per household has shown improvement yet only about 57 per cent of the below the poverty line households are covered. The information was given by minister of state for finance Pawan Kumar Bansal in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. Based on evaluation studies and feedback received from states, a nine point action plan has been jointly formulated.
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
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.
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.
'Due to this sudden phenomenon, guests stopped visiting the homes of these villages, girls and boys from these villages were not getting proposals; students were reluctant to attend schools and colleges for fear of being shamed.'
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.
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.
Who is a poor Indian? One who earns below Rs 35 a day? Or one whose salary is in four figures? While the debate rages, the Bombay Parsi Punchayet, the organisation that governs the affairs of the Zoroastrian community in Bombay, has said that any Parsi who earns less than Rs 90,000 a month (or Rs 10.8 lakh a year) is poor and therefore eligible for its help in finding a house.
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 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.
Soon after the Rajya Sabha met for the day, members from Bharatiya Janata Party, Janata Dal-United, Bahujan Samaj Party, All India Anna Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam and the Left parties were on their feet seeking a discussion on the issue.
In line with the industry expectations, the government has indicated that it is actively considering extension of the NBS regime to cover urea.
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.
The government is actively considering bringing 355 life saving drugs under price control and take a few additional measures to help the poor and below poverty line (BPL) families, once the Union Cabinet approves National Pharmaceutical Policy.
Gandhi said farmers asked him during his Bharat Jodo and Bharat Jodo Nyay yatras about why they were not getting the benefit of loan waivers like billionaire industrialists or MSP (minimum support price) for farm produce.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Attacking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the proposed Food Security Bill, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said the bill, in its current form, will push the country toward "malnutrition".
Employment generation in the midst of a global meltdown will be the central idea of the Interim Budget that the United Progressive Alliance will present on February 16, just ahead of the general elections.
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.
Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu launched his campaign for the next elections with a slew of populist promises offering goodies to different sections. Addressing a huge public meeting, marking the conclusion of his 117-day-long Mee Kosam Yatra (For You Yatra) at Anantapur on Friday evening, Naidu promised 13-hour-free electricity supply to farmers, against the supply of seven hours now.
It proposed that smart cards be issued to BPL families for supply of subsidised kerosene in urban and semi-urban areas to cut diversion of the fuel to unintended users. The panel also suggested a cash transfer system, whereby funds can be transferred to BPL families through a banking or postal system for purchasing of kerosene, instead of supplying the fuel much below the market price.
The 'India Corruption Study 2007', brought out by NGOs Transparency International India (TII) and Centre for Media Studies (CMS), found that about one-third of Below Poverty Line (BPL) households in the country bribed officials to avail a total of 11 services -- from police to PDS.
India's human development indicators show that deprivation extends well beyond the 22 per cent of population who live below the official poverty line.
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