EGoM, sans Pawar, meets Pranab on food bill

An empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on food headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee met in the absence of food and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to take stock of the country’s food security but deferred a decision on the draft food security bill.

“We have deferred a decision on the draft Food Security Bill till Sharad Pawar comes back,” finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said after EGoM meet.
Mr Pawar could not attend the meeting as he underwent surgery in Mumbai on Wednesday for a mouth infection.
The EGoM however decided to extend open market sale scheme for wheat by another three months till September 30 to fight food inflation hovering around 17 per cent. Under the scheme, the government sells wheat to bulk consumers and provides food grain to states for distribution in the retail market below the procurement cost. So far, the government has allocated 30 lakh tonnes under the scheme.
The EGoM also approved additional relief of foodgrains for Kandhamal in Orissa.
Keeping up its diplomatic commitments, the EGoM decided to allow the export of 36,000 tonnes of non-basmati rice to Maldives, despite a ban on export of grains since April, 2008.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a member of the EGoM, said the commission has accepted the number of below poverty line (BPL) persons suggested by the Suresh Tendulkar Committee which pegs the BPL count as 37.5 per cent of the population.
The plan panel had been asked by the EGoM in its last meeting in May to submit an estimate of BPL count including vulnerable sections of society.

***

Cabinet nod to increase of paddy MSP by Rs 50
Age correspondent
New Delhi

June 10: The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved an increased minimum support price (MSP) Rs 1,000 per quintal for paddy, up by Rs 50, for 2010-11 to boost the income of farmers. The government also hiked the MSP for pulses significantly to encourage the farmers.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs took the decision to hike the MSP following recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices.
The move is also aimed at ensuring the country’s food security.
An increase of Rs 50 per quintal in paddy would be applicable to both common and “Grade A” varieties. For Grade A, the MSP would stand increased to Rs 1,030 a quintal.
In 2009-10, the government had announced a bonus of Rs 50 over and above the MSP of Rs 950 per quintal for paddy. This may be announced this year also when procurement starts from October, sources said.
The government hiked the MSP of pulses significantly by up to Rs 700 a quintal for encouraging farmers to put more area under pulses cultivation. India imports about 4 million tonnes of pulses every year to meet domestic demand.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/17135" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-18f5f53af32909f8b2d10f3ae4291910" value="form-18f5f53af32909f8b2d10f3ae4291910" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="87133150" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.