Kerala to amend Essential Commodities Act

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 14 (PTI) In a bid to rein inspiralling prices of foodgrains, the LDF government in Keralatoday decided to amend the state Essential Commodities ControlAct to bring in more items such as rice and wheat under itspurview and check hoarding.

Certain provisions in the Act would be amended soon througha notification to bring in more items under the definition ofessential commodities to enable the government to have a checkon its supply, Food and Civil Supplies Minister C Divakarantold reporters here.

The main objective was to check hoarding of food grains andimpose a control on purchase-sale, transport, distributionand stocking, Divakaran said.

With the amendemnt, government could declare items likerice and wheat as essential commodities through notificationand arrest price rise, Divakaran said.

He accused the Centre of being responsible for the currentspurt in prices of essential commodities and said the uniongovernment had diluted the Central Essential Commodities Act1955 as part of globalisation policies.