Govt to soon hike price of wheat sold through both PDS

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, June 3 (UNI) Union Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has said the Government will soon increase the price of wheat sold through the public distribution system (PDS), simultaneously reducing the allocation.

''It is our responsibility to reduce subsidy. That's why we have taken this decision,'' Mr Pawar said. However, he denied that this was a panic decision in response to the government's failure to meet its wheat procurement target of 16.2 million tonnes for this year.

''For the last six years there has been a rise in procurement price, a rise in storage charges (but) if there is no rise in public distribution prices how can we continue like this?... This decision has to be taken, today or tomorrow. In fact, it is already late by two years,'' the Agriculture Minister said in an interview to CNN-IBN programme Devil's Advocate to be broadcast tomorrow night.

Speaking about the allocation of wheat in the public distribution system, Mr Pawar said previous governments had, in stages, increased it from 20 to 35 kilos because of excess stocks which were rotting in godowns but now the time has come to reduce the allocation.

''It has to be brought down,'' he added.

However, the Minister denied newspaper reports that the government planned to ban wheat exports. Instead he revealed ''No ban on exports ... infact we are seriously thinking that imports should be liberalised and exports both should be liberalised.'' On this year's wheat procurement by the government, Mr Pawar admitted that ''this year's wheat procurement is lowest in last number of years.'' While accepting that the government had only procured 9.5 million tonnes, Mr Pawar denied that the government had set a target of 16.2 million tonnes wheat procurement for this year.

''There is no target ... Who says the target was this? Nobody has fixed a target ... there was no target.'' Claiming that reports the government had bungled the wheat procurement were ''nonsense'', Mr Pawar said in the interview that the government had deliberately decided to encourage direct procurement by the private sector because that would benefit farmers and this explained the government's own low procurement figure.

''This is the first year after we took a major decision to ask all state governments to amend the Agricultural Produce Marketing Act (APMA). As per the (unamended) APMA the farmer was supposed to sell his produce only in mandis and traders were not allowed to buy from farmers other than in mandis. This time we have removed this condition in 18 states and (for the) first time traders got the opportunity to purchase farmers' produce,'' the Minister said.

Mr Pawar claimed that this was why the wheat procurement by the government was low this year.

Speaking about farmers' suicides, Mr Pawar said these were ''a normal thing.'' He said he had studied the total suicides in India for the last ten or twenty years and ''percentage wise there is practically no change in suicides by the farming community.'' When asked if his attitude was insensitive and uncaring and whether he had a guilty conscience about not doing enough to help farmers, the Minister said ''What is this guilty conscience? The situation is there for the last number of years. My government has taken maximum decision whereby this type of issue should be stopped.'' UNI BBS PV DS1210

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