Price blame bomb blows in food minister Pawar’s face

Sharad Pawar’s attempt to blame states for price rise has backfired. States say the onus is on the Centre to abandon its ‘faulty’ policies.

Kerala
C Divakaran, minister for food and civil supplies in Kerala, said: “Pawar made a political statement at a political forum. He should meet state food ministers to discuss the burning issues. Even now, the state government is procuring 11 essential commodities including sugar and giving it at subsided rates. We get rice at Rs 17 a kilo and sell it at Rs 13. We get rice for BPL families at Rs6.20 and sell it at Rs2. What has he done to help us?”

Tamil Nadu
The DMK is cautious about commenting on Pawar because it has an alliance with the Congress. State food minister EV Velu did not want to react to Pawar’s statements. His department officials said CM  Karunanidhi is the “only person who can comment on this” but he is preoccupied with the Anna anniversary library at Kottupuram and the Tamil literary conference.

“Given the DMK government’s panache for providing free gas stoves, TVs and rice at Re 1 per kg for the poor, we don’t think Kalaignar [Karunanidhi] will really give deep thought to Pawar’s comments,” the source said.

J&K
The state government says it is not in a position to control food prices since Jammu and & Kashmir depends on other regions for essential supplies. “Prices are fixed and we have no control over them. All we can do is prevent hoarding,” said Shabir Ahmad Khan, minister of state for food and consumer affairs.

West Bengal
State food and supplies minister PC Adhikari feels the only way to check prices is to do away with a few Central policies, one of which is speculative trading in commodities. This can only be done by the Centre and without this it would be impossible to manage inflation.

Maharashtra
The government said it can contain inflation only up to a point because prices of essential commodities are governed by market forces, which the Centre can control.   Chief minister Ashok Chavan said, “We are providing wheat, rice, palm oil, sugar and dal (pulses) through the PDS.” The state is trying to slash octroi rates to keep prices under check.

Orissa
Food supplies and consumer welfare minister Sarada Prasad Nayak said wrong Central policies are responsible for the spike in prices. “Instead of admitting its fault, the Centre is trying to shift responsibility. Price rise has become a national issue.  It’s not within our control anymore,” Nayak said.  Orissa imports most of its essential commodities —onion, potato, sugar, edible oils, dal and even eggs — from other states.

Rajasthan
Minister of state for food and civil supplies, Ram Kishan Verma, disapproved of Pawar’s statement and demanded that the Centre increase the subsidy on pulses and sugar to check price rise. Verma said, “We have told retailers and wholesalers how much they are allowed to stock. This was done to curb black marketing.”

Punjab
Harcharan Bains, adviser to CM Parkash Singh Badal said it was “preposterous to blame states”. Despite the drought, Punjab exceeded its target of paddy procurement and contributed to the Centre’s grain stocks, he said. 

Uttar Pradesh
Chief minister Mayawati reacted strongly to Pawar’s charge. “The ever-rising inflation is a result of wrong economic policies of the Centre,” the CM said. The Centre reduced diesel and petrol prices before the Lok Sabha polls, but increased them soon afterwards to benefit capitalists. This is what fuelled inflation, she said.  “Paddy output had declined and exports should have been banned but owing to the pressure from black marketeers, it was allowed,” Mayawati said. “How are state governments responsible for this?”
(Inputs from Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri, Don Sebastian, Ram Raj, Ishfaq-ul-Hassan, Subhashish Mohanty, Shubhangi Khapre, Ashish Mehta & Deepak Gidwani)