The Delhi high court on Wednesday stayed the recent guidelines prohibiting hotels and restaurants from levying service charge automatically on food bills. Justice Yashwant Varma, while dealing with petitions by the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) and Federation of Hotels and Restaurant Associations of India challenging the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA)'s July 4 guidelines, said the issue requires consideration and directed the authorities to file their reply. "The matter requires consideration. Consequently, until the next date of listing the directions as contained in para 7 of the impugned guideline of July 4, 2022 shall remain stayed," the court ordered.
The food security Bill is likely to adopt a three-pronged strategy to ensure food for all, particularly for the most vulnerable sections of the society. The National Advisory Council (NAC) in its initial discussions on the Bill had talked about a universalised scheme.
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on Monday sought to blame the opposition for disruption in Parliament, saying they were "bursting debates" and "killing arguments" in the House as he backed the Food Security Bill in its present form.
Of late, crime, politics, corruption and hate have been leaking out of every streaming platform. By the time Garmi drops, fatigue has already set in, observes Deepa Gahlot.
By throwing food at poverty that is result of faulty economics and lack of jobs, one is only trying to suicidal path.
Charging the Congress-led UPA government with not incorporating the amendments suggested by her in the Food Security Bill, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Sunday said her party AIADMK will vote against it in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The police was granted custody of Poonawala for five more days by a court in New Delhi.
A heavy agenda including the ordinance on the Food Security Bill awaits the Monsoon session of Parliament beginning on Monday amid expectations that the short sitting will be more businesslike and smooth as compared to the din and dust in the last few sessions.
The Prime Minister's expert committee on National Food Security Bill on Thursday recommended that the assured delivery of wheat at Rs 2/kg and rice at Rs 3/kg could be given only to poor and expressed difficulty in accommodating general category in view of projected food availability.
The United Progressive Alliance government's proposed Food Safety Bill is nothing more than a vote catching tool for the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kirit Somaiya said on Saturday.
A day before the Cabinet considers issuing an ordinance to implement government's ambitious National Food Security Bill, Food Minister K V Thomas said all UPA allies, including Nationalist Congress Party, are on board and there was a consensus on issuing an ordinance.
The government on Wednesday reached out to opposition Janata Dal-United as continued disruptions in Parliament blocked passage of the United Progressive Alliance's 'game changer' Food Security Bill that aims to provide foodgrains at cheap rates to 67 per cent of the population.
There are some fundamental reasons which will ensure that prices of vegetables and other food stuff will continue to go up in the near future, despite the politicians saying otherwise.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav attacked the Congress over the food security ordinance, accusing it of indulging in vote bank politics and said its intentions were not good.
A decision on the way ahead for the ambitious Food Security Bill is expected to be taken on Wednesday with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi holding deliberations on the matter.
The United Progressive Alliance will decide its strategy on Monday on the ambitious food security bill amid talk of a special session of Parliament.
Amid talk of an ordinance on the Food Security Bill, the law ministry has warned that without putting a proper mechanism in place to distribute foodgrains, a law should not be implemented.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the rebel Shiv Sena MLAs who had camped at a Guwahati luxury hotel for eight days have cleared their bills before they checked out on Wednesday, a hotel official said.
The Food Security Bill, the Land Acquisition Bill and the Aadhar card could bring electoral dividends to the government as it tries to hard to woo the poor, reports Renu Mittal
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Monday described the United Progressive Alliance's ambitious Food Security Bill as nothing but a 'vote security bill'.
The Food Security Bill is likely to be a game-changer for the Congress ahead of five assembly polls this year-end.
Hard-selling United Progressive Alliace's 'game changer' Food Security Act, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday reached out to the 'aam admi' and tribals recalling that Sonia Gandhi was in tears as she failed to cast her vote in Lok Sabha when her pet project was being passed in August.
The Food Security Bill, which could not be taken up despite being listed in the Lok Sabha'a agenda since Monday, will not be part of business on Saturday.
While Birla did not specify the financial implications of the move, sources said the Lok Sabha Secretariat can annually save more than Rs 8 crore with the subsidy coming to an end.
With hotels and restaurants being barred from levying service charge, waiters, chefs and other workers are worried they will lose out on money and are planning to approach managements to seek a pay raise. They are also apprehensive that tips given by customers out of goodwill will dwindle. Uttarakhand-native Prakash Singh Koranga, 27, a chef who works at an outlet of popular franchise Moti Mahal Deluxe restaurant in south Delhi, said service charge which gets proportionally divided among the staff acts as an "extra income" and "incentive to give our best at the job".
A customer dissatisfied with his dining experience can have service charge on his food bill waived.
There continues to be several major problems with the food security scheme that deserve to be more thoroughly discussed at the highest level of law making than they have been so far.
The government on Tuesday approved the revised Food Security Bill to provide for uniform 5 kg of foodgrains per month per person at a highly subsidised price of Rs 1 to 3 per kg to two-thirds of the country's population.
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.
Political commentators are of the view that to blunt the negative impact of double anti-incumbency, the UPA-II has to be seen as doing something like Indira Gandhi's Garibi Hatao.
In the proposed law, beneficiaries have been divided into two categories-- priority households and the general households.
A public interest litigation was filed on Saturday in the Supreme Court seeking quashing of controversial Food Security Ordinance on the ground that the constitutional provision has been misused for pre-election propaganda and political gains.
Aiming to provide food security to the poor, the government today approved food bill that seeks to give legal entitlement of cheaper food grains to 63.5 per cent of the country's population.
The government had pegged food subsidy at Rs 90,000 crore (Rs 900 billion) in the 2013-14 Union Budget.
The right to food campaign, which is a collaboration of people's movements from across the country, is now on the verge of seeing its demand of a right to food become a reality.
The business model is going through a reality check; expansion plans on hold and manpower rationalisation is on the cards. Checking expenditure is critical now as advertising is already on a downswing, though CEOs insist that the real impact will be felt in the next quarter. On condition of anonymity, an advertising sales executive admits to a 15 to 20 per cent decline in news channel advertising.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who was taken ill on Monday, was back in the Lok Sabha on Thursday to attend the debate on Land Acquisition Bill but did not participate in voting the legislation which was being pushed by the National Advisory Council headed by her.
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The partially convertible rupee closed at 66.24/25 per dollar after hitting a record low of 66.30, and down 2.9 per cent from its close of 64.30/31 on Monday.
In a veiled attack on Bharatiya Janata Party and RSS, Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said the opposition does not respect women and their 'ideological sangathan' has no place for them.
Others taxed at 5, 12, 18, 28%
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