Rice price likely to come down within few days: Rosaiah

Kakinada, Sep 26 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister K Rosaiah today claimed that the price of rice, especially of super fine varieties, was likely to come down within a few days due to the effective steps initiated by the government.

Talking to mediapersons here, he said the production of super fine rice such as BPT this year was not in commensurate with its growing demand, resulting in sudden spurt in prices in the market.

''The timely market intervention measures, initiated by the government, like making available superfine rice at Rs 18 a kg and pushing more common varieties of rice into the market has started yielding the desired results and within few days, the situation is bound to improve, bringing down the prices,'' he said.

On the shortage of fertilisers, he admitted that there was some problem initially, but the ''situation is improving due to the effective measures initiated''.

''There was no opening balance for kharif regarding fertilizers due to erratic rainfall, with some areas getting excessive rains while some places experiencing scanty rains, bringing imbalance in regard to demand. The delay in fertiliser movement to the needy areas is another factor that led to confusion. Moreover, the farmers, in panic tried to stock the fertilisers for the next Rabi season in advance, leading to a mad rush,'' the Minister clarified.

The movement of fertilisers had now been streamlined, indenting for more railway rakes. In view of the present situation, the government had now kept one lakh tonne of fertilisers as buffer stocks for the ensuing rabi season and earmarking Rs 600 crore, he added.

UNI XC VA ROY SR HT1909