NEW DELHI: Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Friday took the rare step of postponing a question on wheat imports, and asked members to file a notice for a full-fledged discussion in view of the importance of the subject.

Speaking in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Priyaranjan Dasmunsi assured the House that the Government would provide for a discussion.

Mr. Shekhawat announced the decision to postpone the question after the Left parties charged the Government with changing the quality specifications for imported wheat. Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party and some other National Democratic Alliance constituents walked out, accusing the Government of ignoring the interests of farmers in north India.

The BJP members fired the first salvo, with Murli Manohar Joshi alleging that the Government was importing wheat instead of buying it from farmers in Punjab and Haryana. Yashwant Sinha said no attention was being paid to suicide by farmers.

Phytosanitary conditions

Dr. Joshi also raised concerns about phytosanitary conditions, and said the imported wheat contained harmful weeds and seeds. Sushma Swaraj claimed that the imported wheat contained pesticides many times higher than the safe limit.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) member Brinda Karat, supported by her colleagues, said the imports reflected "the awry food policy." Procurement during the rabi season was done improperly, with the Government relying more on private traders. "This [the low procurement] has been a big setback."

Minister of State for Agriculture Akhilesh Prasad Singh said the Government was confident of procuring 162 lakh tonnes when the season started. But its earlier estimates failed because the market price was higher than the minimum support price offered by the Government. The wheat being imported was meant for south India. The Government went in for imports because transporting wheat from the north would have proved expensive. The price would work out to Rs. 10.30 a kg if wheat was transported from the north. This was higher than the cost of imported wheat But BJP members challenged his claim.

Dr. Singh denied that the pesticide level was higher than what was permitted in the imported wheat. A government laboratory in Mysore cleared the consignments.

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