Twitter
Advertisement

PM Manmohan Singh’s meet offers no solution on food inflation

As the government grapples with high prices of essential commodities, the prime minister today held a meeting with senior ministers to find ways to tame food inflation which has crossed 18%.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

The special meeting called by prime minister Manmohan Singh to discuss ways to rein in runaway food prices on Tuesday remained inconclusive even as the Congress and the BJP traded barbs over the issue.

The high level meeting is learnt to have discussed different possibilities, including doing away with import duty on food commodities such as sugar and banning their export. Food inflation rose to 18.32% for the week ended December 25. Data showed that three-fourth of food inflation was due to rising prices of vegetables, and nearly one-fourth is due to milk prices.

Emerging from the meeting, Mukherjee sought to pass the buck on to the states for the rise in the prices of essential goods. The Centre alone cannot be held responsible for the price rise, he said, adding the states should also do their bit to check food inflation. He reiterated that much of the inflation was due to a significant spike in the prices of primary items like fruits and vegetables, milk, meat, poultry and fish. 

 Last week, Mukherjee had written to the chief ministers to ensure that all bottlenecks in the supply chain are removed at the earliest and the availability of the items driving the current round of food inflation is improved so that food prices can be brought down quickly.

Besides Mukherjee, the meeting was attended by home minister P Chidambaram, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and the chairman of the prime minister’s economic advisory council C Rangarajan.

Meanwhile, the BJP targeted Manmohan Singh, saying the “inability” to control inflation was the “biggest failure” of the “economist prime minister”.  The party also accused the government of not taking proactive steps to check rising prices and questioned Mukherjee’s ability to do so.

“The prices of onions and tomatoes are not coming down, interest rates have been increased six times, which is having a bad effect on the stock market.... We have a prime minister who is also an economist. But in the last three years, he did not have any solution to deal with it. It is his biggest failure,” said senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley.

 In response, the Congress said the high-level meeting convened by the prime minister shows the UPA government’s “sensitivity” towards the issue. It put the onus on the states to check the menace.

 “The real challenge is how you reduce the gap between the farm gate prices and the prices which consumers pay, and to a large extent the responsibility also vests with the state governments...because the power to act to take action against profiteers, hoarders and those who speculate are with state governments,” party spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters.

— With PTI inputs

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement