Pawar justifies wheat import being cheaper than local produce

New Delhi, May 25 (UNI) Agriculture and Food Minister Sharad Pawar today justified his government's decision to import wheat saying that it is cheaper than supplying the domestic produce in southern states.

Making a presentation on the wheat imports to BJP top leadership including L.K Advani and Rajnath Singh, the Minister said import of five lakh tonnes of wheat from Australia for southern Indian states had been worked out as cheaper than sending wheat stocks to those areas from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh which would invarably cost Rs 1800 a quintal to the FCI.

On the recent decesion to import 30 lakh tonnes more wheat, Mr Pawar said it was meant for building the buffer for Public Distribution System(PDS) as the procurement had been low this year at less than 10 million tonnes against usual purchase of 16-17 million tonnes by FCI every year.

For the first time, the government allowed private companies to purchase wheat directly from farmers from mandies as consequent to the amendment of the APMC Act. Under the changed dispensation, the private players bought large quantities of wheat from the farmers at marginally higher prices, Mr Pawar said.

The BJP has written to the Prime Minister seeking details of suicides by the farmers as well as other related agricultural issues.

Dr Manmohan Singh nominated Mr Pawar to give presentation on the agricultural issues.

The BJP is likely to take up a serious discussion on crisis in the farm sector in its coming executive meeting in Delhi on May 29 and 30 and it wanted to apprise itself of official postion on the farm issues.

Other BJP leaders present in the meeting included Mrs Sushma Swaraj,Mr Jaswant Singh and Mr V.K Malhotra.

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