The Hindu : National : Supreme Court moved to stop wheat import

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Friday, May 11, 2007
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Supreme Court moved to stop wheat import

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear on May 17 an application by environmental activist Vandana Shiva seeking a direction to the Centre to stop the import of one million tonnes of wheat in tranches by July.

A Bench, comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices R.V. Raveendran and D.K. Jain, fixed the date after Pinky Anand, counsel for the petitioner, told the court that tenders were expected to be finalised shortly.

In August last, the court issued notice to the Centre on Ms. Shiva's petition assailing the Government's decision. The present application has been filed in this writ petition.

She referred to the Centre's counter admitting that in the last import of 2006-2007, foreign weeds/berries were allowed. These posed a serious and imminent risk of contamination to Indian wheat and hazard to "our agriculture and food security."

On the one hand, the Government was importing wheat and, on the other, private traders and multinationals were being permitted to procure it directly from farmers for export. The Government's decision was benefiting only the MNCs, private traders and some foreign countries to the detriment of Indian farmers.

Ms. Shiva wanted a direction to the Centre to prohibit the import until further orders, and to direct the Government "that instead of importing sub-standard wheat in lakhs of tonnes at a phenomenally high price of about Rs. 1,680 a quintal, they give a higher or market purchase price of Rs. 1,000 a quintal to Indian farmers (instead of Rs. 850) so that Indian farmers do not sell the wheat to multinational firms."

The petitioner submitted that even if the Government paid higher than the market price, it saved valuable foreign exchange.

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