Call to make PDS universal in scope The Federation of the Cuddalore District Consumer Forums has urged the Centre to drop the move to press ahead with the Food Security Bill because it seeks to edge out several lakhs of families living below the poverty line from the purview of the Public Distribution System. The Federation passed a resolution at a meeting convened here to celebrate National Consumer Day on Saturday. It noted that rather the government should make the PDS universal in its scope. It attributed the shortcomings in the PDS to the disconcerted manner in which various departments such as the revenue, District Supply Office, the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation and the cooperatives, which were otherwise assigned the same task, were functioning. For effecting better coordination among these departments it had become imperative to form a separate mechanism to take care of the PDS. It opined that to ensure quality and right price, the government should insist upon the trade to selling only those commodities carrying the Agmark label in the open market. The trend of diverting vast stretches of farm lands for industrial and realty purposes should be arrested. The Federation called for dismantling the Parents—Teachers' Associations and replacing them with “school administration committees” to improve the education system. It called upon the government to clearly define the term “neighbourhood schools” referred to in the Education for All scheme. It was of the view that the educational cess being collected should be utilised only for educational purposes. It sought rectification of the shortcomings in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for which it suggested inclusion of the farm related works under its purview and payment of right kind of wages. Voicing concern over the opaque functioning of the micro-financing companies the Federation emphasised the need for bringing them under the surveillance of the government. For forging harmonious relationship among the riparian states the Centre should prepare a plan for nationalisation of rivers. To mitigate the hardships of the litigant public the Green Tribunal should be allowed to set up circuit benches in all the districts and a Supreme Court Bench should be established at a suitable place in southern India. It blamed the television channels for the gradual degeneration of culture and therefore to reverse the trend it suggested putting in place a regulatory mechanism, on the line of the Film Certification Board, to keep a watch on the serials and advertisements beamed in these channels. Executive secretary and vice-president of the Consumer Federation-Tamil Nadu, M. Nizamudeen and Balki, former general secretary of FEDCOT S. Martin, and office-bearers of various consumer forums participated. “Form a separate mechanism to take care of the PDS implementation” “Arrest trend of diverting vast stretches of farm lands for industrial, realty purposes”