Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday presided over a meeting to review the latest market situation over spiralling food prices, as his party said the state governments should also act to reduce the gap between the prices at which farmers sell and the consumers buy.
The Prime Minister held meeting with some of his cabinet colleagues, including Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Alhuwalia, on Tuesday.
At a press briefing later, Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said: “The government is sensitive to price rise. The Prime Minister himself called personally the meeting with senior ministers to take cognizance. This shows the sensitivity of the government.”
“The challenge is to reduce the gap between the price farmers get and the price consumers pay.
The Centre in the past raided the hoarders, but the state government should also act against them, he said.
He said whether it is a Congress government or non-Congress government, the state should act and try to reduce the profiteering and hoarding in between farmers and consumers.
Prices of many essentials have been going up unbridled for past months causing huge holes in the pockets of middle class and poor people.
Onion prices show no sign of climbing down even as the three-week deadline set by Sharad Pawar ended.
The commodity is still hovering around Rs 60-70/kg and garlic Rs 300 for a kilo pushing prices of other essentials and vegetables nearly out of reach of millions of people. This has pushed food inflation at 18.32% for the week ending Dec 25.
Sources said the unbridled price rise has forced the PM to call the meeting to discuss steps to calm prices and bring relief to millions of households.
On Dec 21, after retail onion prices quadrupled suddenly, Pawar had said the prices would remain high for three weeks and then show a declining trend.
Measures like to curbing hoarding have not been working at all, while income tax raids on traders in Nashik and Delhi have backfired.
Angry traders have gone on strike even as there is a slowdown in the arrival of onions from Pakistan. This meant that retail rates of onions were ruling at Rs 60-70/kg across the country.