Centre, states to discuss food inflation today

Manipulation by vested interests to create an artificial shortage of food items is expected to figure prominently at the day-long meeting of state food ministers convened by the Centre on Friday.

According to officials, the meeting is to be chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely and presided over by both Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh. The meeting will deliberate on the possible measures to rein in prices, especially in the backdrop of a poor monsoon this year.

Despite government measures, prices of some food items, especially onion and potato, have been rising even as their production is sufficient on likely below-normal monsoon.

The price rise issues and monsoon situation will be discussed during the first session and the Food Security Act will be deliberated in the second session, said a senior food ministry official.

The meeting will also take stock of the impact of some of the recent measures taken to improve domestic supply of onion and potato and other food items and discuss the hurdles being faced by state governments in keeping prices down.

The Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC) Act will also be reviewed for creating a national common market for food items by removing barriers for internal trade.

The conference will take updates on monsoon situation in respective states and deliberate the steps to be taken to minimise the impact of deficit rains on crops and livestock.

The meeting will address the problems faced by some states to implement the Food Security Act, which gives two-thirds of the country's population the right to subsidised foodgrain.

At present, 25 states and Union territories have not yet implemented the Act. Recently, the Centre gave an additional three months to state governments to implement this law.

In May, overall inflation rose to a five-month high of 6.01 per cent, while food inflation peaked to 9.50 per cent due to rising prices of essential food items such as vegetables, fruit and cereals.