New Delhi : A state food ministers’ conference convened on Friday by the Centre decided to mount a 6-month long action plan with 14 specific steps to curb artificial increase of prices of the food items despite record production.
Thirteen specific commodities were identified for monitoring their prices and resort to the government intervention in the event of shortages or hoarding to jack up the prices.
These commodities include – onions, tomatoes and potatoes among vegetables, rice, jowar, bajra, moong, masoor and tuar pulses as also edible oils, bread, milk and eggs.
Noting the pattern of the seasonable variations every year between July and December affecting the essential commodities of common consumption, the conference chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley decided to have this six-month plan to deal with the situation effectively through the Centre-state coordination.
Jaitley told the conference that the prices of the food items increasing despite record production of agricultural commodities shows hoarding at some level and hence all steps should be taken to ensure their availability at reasonable prices. He wondered if some system is evolved to anticipate such rise and plan joint actions in advance.
The state food ministers agreed in the conference that the states will map vulnerable areas prone to supply shortages for special monitoring and ensure that “stock-out” situations do not occur, especially for these items of common consumption. Senior Officers such as the District Commissioners/Collectors in the districts and the Municipal Commissioners in the cities/towns will be designated as focal points for monitoring the availability and price levels of these commodities.
Some other features are:
— Establishment of a revolving fund by the states to buy the commodities in bulk and regulate their storage to meet peak demand, particularly during the festival season, by sale at reasonable prices through the public distribution system (PDS).
— Removal of vegetable, fruits and other perishable commodities which are price sensitive from the ambit of the mandi act through immediate notifications and exempt them from local fees and mandi taxes.
— Setting up of a price stabilisation fund by the Centre to enable states to undertake market intervention to tackle rise in prices of commodities of the common man’s consumption.
