The Hindu : National : Southern Ministers to meet on rice issue

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 29, 2007
ePaper

National

National

Southern Ministers to meet on rice issue

T. Ramavarman

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The Food Ministers of the South Indian States are planning to hold a meeting to evolve strategies to address the issues of shortage and rise in price of food grains.

Minister for Food and Civil Supplies C. Divakaran told The Hindu here that the initiative for this had been taken by Food Minister of Andhra Pradesh K.V. Krishna Reddy. The meeting would be held in Hyderabad and it would also discuss the hurdles in the LPG supply in these States.

The Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar and Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora would be invited for the meeting, likely to be held late next week. The exact dates would be fixed in consultation with the Union Ministers, Mr Divakaran said.

The Minister said as per reports it was the hoarding of food grains by the private retail giants like the Reliance which was the major cause of the current shortage and price rise. They were known to have procured huge quantities of food grains directly from the farmers in different parts of the country.

At the proposed meeting, the Kerala government would demand the Centre to take urgent actions to ensure that adequate quantities of food grains were released into the market by the private groups, Mr. Divakaran said.

According to him, the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre had frozen a provision in the Essential Commodities Act which sought to prevent hoarding of food grains by private groups, in 2002. Only the government had the right to stock food grains till then for longer periods. However, the subsequent United Progressive Alliance government had not revived this provision. The State would demand that the Centre should urgently reactivate the provision and enforce it rigorously, the Minister said.

Common grid

Mr. Divakaran said the State would also explore the possibility of constituting a common food grains grid for the South Indian States so that the deficit States could ensure smooth flow of food grains from the surplus States.

He said the Andhra Pradesh Minister had agreed to stick to his earlier assurance to reach 10,000 tonnes of rice to Kerala immediately, even though the Opposition there had raised a hue and cry about this.

He said he was hopeful of resolving the crisis in the food grains sector in the State by January as by then the Centre was also likely to sanction another 10,000 tonnes of rice.

Pointing out that the budget allocation for the Food Department in the State was only Rs.120 crore in Kerala, the Minister said the figure was as high as Rs.12,000 crore in Andhra Pradesh and Rs.5,000 crore in Tamil Nadu. Even within these financial constraints the State was making elaborate market intervention efforts to ensure supply of food grains at reasonable price.

For example, 25 kg of rice was being distributed at Rs.3 a kg to 20 lakh poor families while nearly 50 lakh families belonging to the Above Poverty Line category were eligible for 10 kg of rice at Rs.8.90 a kg . In addition to that, rice was being sold at Rs.14 a kg through the Supplyco outlets in the State.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National