'Pawar must resign over spiralling inflation'

{image-sharad+pawar1_02042008.jpg news.oneindia.in}New Delhi, Apr 2: Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav today said that if Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is unable to control forward trading and the role of private players in the trading of essential commodities, then he should resign.

"This (resignation) would help him in concentrating more on cricket," said Yadav, a former Union Consumer Affairs Minister while addressing a press conference, at his party headquarters in the capital. Yadav said that during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)'s rule the buffer stocks of essential commodities viz, wheat and sugar had gone upto the extent of 600 lakh tonnes, whereas the present Congress-led Unite Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government has allowed it to dip to around 77 lakh tonnes.

This, he added, happened because the Union Government did not put a check on export of the essential commodities. The unprecedented and inexplicable price rise of essential commodities was upto the extent of 100 per cent as compared to the NDA rule from 1998 to April 2000.

Food security and strengthening of the Public Distribution System (PDS) in linked to adequate production of foodgrains and then its procurement for the Central pool. Encouragement of incentives to switch from foodgrains to other crops alongwith some other reasons has led to a fall in the production of foodgrains. In the procurement front, the Government has favoured imports than the procurement from the farmers by the government agencies which could be made by offering the best prices to them," his party stated.

The UPA Government has disturbed the set system of procurement of foodgrains for PDS which is laid down since many years by not increasing the Minimum Support Price (MSP) at the right time for the farmers and allowing private trade to purchase foodgrains at the lower MSP from the farmers instead of being vigilant regarding lower buffer and higher market prices and breaking monopoly procurement by Food Corporation of India (FCI), the party alleged.

ANI