Realising an urgent need of transparency in the implementation of its flagship MGNREGA, the government will soon introduce biometric cards for the workers to check fund leakages and expedite wage payments.

It’s an alarming situation in Punjab, the granary to the nation, where heavy pesticide usage in the fields is taking a toll on the reproductive health of the people.
“Rising instances of abortion, early menarchy, foetal abnormalities especially neural tube defects and early ageing seem to have a strong correlation to the high pesticide levels in our fields,” said Dr GPI Singh, director principal, Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences, Bathinda.

Rural development minister C.P. Joshi has ordered a probe into the reported misuse of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) funds by the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government.

The All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has cautioned the government against going ahead with the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement before debating the issue in Parliament.

The draft food security bill has come in for sharp criticism from experts who have cautioned the government against rushing in with the law guaranteeing food grains to the poor.

The government, it seems, has not learnt any lessons from the 2009 drought, which adversely impacted rice production, even as kharif crop sowing for 2010 has started.
The 2009 drought reduced rice production by around 16 million tonnes and forced the government to take a hard look at the national food security bill it was planning to introduce in Parliament.

Though the government claims it has sufficient stocks of rice (255 lakh tonnes against a buffer need of 138 lakh tonnes), the world’s second-largest rice-producing nation cannot afford to be complacent, especially when it is planning to make right to food an entitlement for the poor, said experts.

India’s food granary is following a suicide trajectory. One farmer is committing suicide everyday in the Punjab with the worst-affected districts in eastern parts of the state.
Fear of the Naxalites gaining ground in Punjab and revival of militancy is forcing the government to downplay the continuing spate of farm suicides in the food bowl of India.

Non-Congress-ruled states insist that they are being discriminated against on the key issue of food subsidy.
Non-Congress states, including UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa and Punjab, have been demanding the numbers of below poverty line (BPL) persons g

Low farm productivity in big states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal as compared to high-yielding Punjab and Haryana, which feed the entire country, is proving to be a limiting factor to India’s food security in the long run.