The government will consider imposing stock holding limits on food items like pulses and cooking oils to check hoarding for containing price rise, Food Minister K V Thomas said.
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 which introduced amendments to the landmark Food Security Bill in the Lok Sabha Thursday could not get it passed as opposition stalled proceedings in the House over killing of Sarabjit Singh in Pakistan and other issues.
The current cost of the food subsidy is Rs 1 trillion.
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 food ministry has supported the suggestion of Rangarajan panel to allow export of 2 million tons of wheat from government stocks immediately to ease pressure on storages, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Monday.
Food bill, which is dubbed as the world's largest social welfare programme, aims to give legal right over an uniform quantity of 5 kg foodgrains at a fixed price of Rs 1-3 per kg via ration shops to 67 per cent of the population.
Giving a reform boost to the commodity futures market, the government on Thursday cleared a Bill that seeks to provide more power including financial autonomy to regulator FMC and introduce new categories of products.
Concerned over possible fall in pulses production due to poor monsoon so far, the government is considering reintroducing its scheme to sell subsidised pulses through ration shops to give relief to common man from price rise.
Food Min says decision on Rangarajan panel's report in a time bound manner.
Although the monsoon is not active, it is not sluggish either he said, adding that the eastern coast, central India and north east are getting fairly good rains. Even Maharashtra and parts of peninsula are having rain.
It is unusual for Congress chief ministers to say no to Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, but some of them have gathered the courage to oppose Gandhi's dream project.
Government's cheap food distribution covers 68 per cent of the population.
Inflation declined marginally to 7.45 per cent in October even though prices of food items like rice, wheat pulses and potato showed a rising trend.
The two major changes include: keeping an option open for supplying more than 3 kg of subsidised foodgrains to general households and widening its reach to include lactating women, destitute and aged people and providing nutritious food to children.
The government on Wednesday sought public comments on the draft National Food Security Bill, which seeks to provide a legal entitlement to subsidised foodgrains to 75 per cent of the country's rural population and 50 per cent of urban India.
This has been done after most states failed to lift the additional allocations, despite repeated reminders from the central government.
Expressing confidence, Food Minister K V Thomas said on Friday the government is not 'worried' about food inflation, which is showing a decline trend and may come down to 7 per cent soon.
Congress reached out to Samajwadi Party Supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav for his support for passage of the Food Security Bill which is expected to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday coinciding with the birth anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi.
The ordinance on the Food Security Bill is expected to come up for consideration in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, sources said on Monday.
A day after the Congress reached out to Mulayam Singh Yadav seeking support for passage of the Food Security Bill, the Samajwadi Party on Tuesday decided to support the legislation but will move amendments seeking to give farmers their due for crops and giving more grains per person.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday termed Food Security Bill a "historic legislation" and asked party leaders to publicise its importance to masses as they gear up for elections scheduled early next year.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru on the sidelines of the Eighth National Conference on Krishi Vigyan Kendras 2013, Pawar also ruled out the possibility of traders exporting onions to other countries where prices are less than India.
The much-touted Food Security Bill was taken up in Lok Sabha on Tuesday but the discussion was scuttled by disruptions over Telangana issue caused by Telugu Desam Party members storming the Well.
National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India has floated tender after kitchen staple prices touched Rs 90 even though wholesale rates were much less at Rs 50-60 a kg.
The much-touted Food Security Bill, which proposes to give the country's three-fourth population the right to highly-subsidised food, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, with the government rejecting apprehensions that it would impinge upon the rights of states.
In a letter written recently to the Finance Minister, Pawar had said that arrears of sugar mills have risen to over Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) and there was a need to hike import duty to curb shipments, which is putting downward pressure on local prices.
The country has exported about 5 lakh tonnes of raw sugar so far availing the benefit of the subsidy, according to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA).
Against the backdrop of debacle in Lok Sabha polls, voices for bringing Priyanka Gandhi to the forefront if politics grew stronger within the Congress party with at least two leaders on Friday saying she is a "big fighter" and has the "natural ability" to connect with people.
Onion prices have been ruling at Rs 70-90 per kg in most parts of the country and even touched Rs 100 per kg in some cities like Patna and Jammu.
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'.
Addressing a separate session on world food security, Thomas said that India's food law marks a paradigm shift in approach to food security -- from being a welfare measure to rights-based approach.
Going ahead with its "game changer" measure for next Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Tuesday rolled out the ambitious food security scheme in three states -- Delhi, Haryana and Uttarakhand with party President Sonia Gandhi hailing the measure as "historic" and "unparalleled".
Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after the meeting that the situation in Uttarakhand is better than what it was on Tuesday and Food Minister K V Thomas is taking steps to rush more food grains to the flood-hit Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
The Congress on Saturday rubbished media reports that it is going to use the Food Security ordinance as a trump card in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, saying the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre has come up with various schemes in the social sector and for the nation's welfare during its nine-year rule.
The government is being pushed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to put the food bill on fast track as the Congress had promised a 'right to food' in its 2009 election manifesto, reports Anita Katyal
Ushering in the biggest programme in the world to fight hunger, Parliament on Monday gave its nod to the landmark Food Security Bill which seeks to provide highly subsidised foodgrains to the country's two-third population as a right.
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ITC, Infosys, Wipro and HDFC Bank among the major losers.
The stock and foreign exchange markets have had a negative reaction to the government's biggest social security programme, the National Food Security Bill. Food minister K V Thomas questions the rationale behind such a response
Justifying the United Progressive Aliance government's decision to bring the food security bill through an ordinance, Union Food Minister K V Thomas on Thursday said the Centre is confident that it will be ratified in the monsoon session of Parliament commencing on August 5.
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