''Grave crisis'' with dip in wheat production, Pawar

New Delhi, July 28 (UNI) The government today said the country could face a ''grave crisis'' with the fall in production of wheat in the country and assured the House that a scheme is underway to increase the produce.

''In view of the reduced availability of foodgrains, especially wheat, and to ensure that the subsidy is targetted towards poor households, as well as to check diversion, the government took decisions to raise the Central Issue Prices (CIPs) of foodgrains for Above Poverty Line (APL) households and to rationalise the allocation of foodgrains under the Targetted Public Distribution System (TPDS),'' Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said in the Rajya Sabha during question hour.

However, the minister said the implementation of these decisions have been put on hold as representation from state governments are awaited.

Mr Pawar said wheat production is mainly concentrated in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana and west Uttar Pradesh. In other parts of the country, there is hardly any production. ''We are preparing a scheme to increase wheat production,'' Mr Pawar said while replying to supplementaries during question hour.

He said there has been a surplus production of rice but ''wheat is not as per the expectations''. Out of a procurement capacity of 16 million tonnes, only 9 million tonnes of the grain could be procured, he said while replying to a question by Karnendu Bhattacharjee, Cong.

The Minister also said there has been shortage of oil seeds and pulses in the country and they are being currently imported from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. But, due to a shortfall of the products in Pakistan and Bangladesh, NAFED has been instructed to import pulses.

BJP member Najma Heptullah said many farmers commit suicides because they do not get remunerative prices.

Mr Pawar said the food subsidy advantage is not transferred to the farmers and goes directly to the consumers.

Congress member V Naryanasamy said there should be universal guidelines for setting up BPL and APL families. Mr Pawar said the government has given clear-cut guidelines to all states to strategise the families according to the level of poverty.

Answering a question on ration cards, Mr Pawar said it is the responsibility of the states to issue ration cards. He is aware of fake ration cards being in circulation too.

When CPI(M) member Brinda Karat asked whether the government has ''clandestinely'' cut allocation of wheat in the Public Distribution System (PDS), the Minister replied in the negative and said the governmnet is ensuring that needy get wheat.

Congress member Jai Prakash Aggarwal asked what facility is being given to the farmers for growing pulses, Mr Pawar said the production of pulses has been stagnating for the past few years and farmers are not encouraged to grow them. The minister also said e-trading and futures trading in food grains has been stopped.

When Ravi Shankar Prasad of BJP asked about the price increase especially of sugar recently, the Minister said the production has only been 120 lakh tonnes last year against the requirement of 190 tonnes. ''Now prices of sugar have stabilised,'' he said.

UNI RT MSJ HT1245