Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee writes to prime minister and Congress chief, holds Union agriculture minister responsible for price rise and aam aadmi’s plight.
Be it at the Centre or at the state level, the Congress seems to have trained its guns on Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) party president and Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar. The Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) in a letter to prime minister Manmohan Singh has said that wheat, which is an essential commodity, is being allowed to decay due to poor planning and lack of vision.
The Congress core committee, which discussed the matter, feels there can’t be any justification to allow tonnes of food grains to rot in warehouses when almost 3 crore people in the state can’t afford to buy grains at the current prices.
The attack on Pawar, who hold the crucial portfolio, comes at a time when the Union ministry for finance and planning in engaged in a fault finding exercise. “Images of several tonnes of rotten wheat can’t be justified when 30% of people sleep hungry every day. We have to raise our voices for corrective measures,” said a senior Congress minister.
MPCC spokesperson Kanhaiyalal Gidwani held Pawar responsible for pursuing wrong policies, which have resulted in food grains rotting in warehouses instead of reaching the aam aadmi. He also cautioned the Centre against decontrol of sugar.
“Decontrol of sugar will deprive the government powers to check price and availability as the control will be in the hands of commodity trading gamblers and hoarders,” said Gidwani, adding that the Rs3 per kg price rise was a short-term manipulation that was corrected last week.
Gidwani in the letter to the prime minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi said, “The government should ensure that wheat is made available to common man at uniform price all over the country instead of allowing it to decay in the warehouse. When surplus stock is withheld in the name of buffer stock and released later, it leads to price escalation and does not serve the consumers who have to shell extra money.”
Suggesting policy changes, Gidwani said, “The wheat which is made available in the lean period from October to March should be changed and made available from August 15 this year.”
Another demand laid down is about the procurement price, which should be uniform from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. The MPCC has also urged the Centre to make state governments responsible for the control of price of commodities under open market.
According to Gidwani, if the new policy is adopted, it will ensure movement of stocks that are currently deteriorating in the godowns. The MPCC has also suggested that the price of wheat in open market should not be allowed to exceed Rs15-16 per kg and in lean period Rs18-20 per kg. The logic being that when surplus wheat is made available in the market, it will dissuade hoarders to create artificial shortage.
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