Price-wary govt to open food gates

Wheat and rice stocks may soon be released into the open market to bring down the soaring food prices.

Sources confirmed that the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on food — headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee — that met on Monday for over two hours was seriously considering the move.

Among the measures discussed were sale of grain in the open market from stocks with state-run procurement agencies, duty concessions on import of edible oil and foodgrain and further subsidy on sale through the state-run fair-price shops.

Under the open market sale scheme, meant for both states as well as bulk consumers, the Centre may release up to 30 lakh tonne of wheat and 15 lakh tonne of rice. The government will also continue with the ban on export of non-basmati rice and wheat.

The government is even more worried about the health of the rural economy which may nosedive despite the “feel good” measures such as loan waiver scheme and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)  initiated by the government in its last term like the

“Serious consideration is being given to tweaking the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to remove the cap of 100 days guaranteed work to the rural poor. In its place, the NREGA can be used for extensive drought relief work,” a source who attended the meeting said.

The EGoM on food is now committed to meeting regularly till some kind of management of the drought is achieved by the central government.