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BJP sees food-scarcity era

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party has charged the United Progressive Alliance government with “mismanagement of the food economy” and warned that prices of cereals, pulses, edible oil, and other essentials would continue to rise affecting the poorest the most. Even as the per capita production of cereals in the country had gone down, global availability of food grains was decreasing, and prices, domestic and international, were going up.

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad charged the UPA government with turning the food-surplus years of the National Democratic Alliance regime into a food-scarcity era. The government was not paying adequate attention to maintaining a handsome buffer stock. It had taken a series of steps that damaged the morale of the farmer, leading to lower productivity. Last year, wheat was imported at far higher prices than that was paid to the Indian farmer for his produce. Though export of pulses was banned, some exports continued as a result of the exceptions being made in certain cases, he said.

Mr. Prasad pointed out that in 2002-03, the NDA government exported food worth Rs.70,000 crore and had ample buffer stocks. The UPA had frittered all that away. The government should take Parliament into confidence on what it proposed to do to ensure food security.

Another senior BJP leader said that inflation would overshadow all other issues. The increased money supply as a result of the Sixth Pay Commission would also add to the inflation rate. However, if the government curbed money supply, it could affect growth and development.

The most worrisome, he said, was inflation affecting food items, petroleum products, steel and cement.

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