Centre to discuss food inflation with state ministers today

The Centre has convened a state food ministers' meet today to discuss measures to check the unreasonable increase in prices of some food items.

The conference will be chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and presided over by Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan.

The government has taken a serious note of recent hike in prices and has decided to take strong action against it, jointly with state governments. There are enough stocks of foodgrains and other essential commodities in the country.

The prices of some of the commodities specially onion and potato are a matter of concern. It is very urgent to discuss the measures to be taken to address the issue. Steps to prevent hoarding of these commodities and plans for distribution of specific essential items through public channels and improving other supply channels will be discussed in the meeting.

The meeting will also review the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act for creating a national common market for food items with no barriers to internal trade. Issues pertaining to maintenance of stock and supply of onion and potato as well as improving post harvest infrastructure, value addition and containing wastage will also be taken up in the meeting to ensure availability of these commodities.

Meanwhile, the Centre has also asked state governments to take urgent measures to tackle undue increase in onion prices.

In a letter to chief secretaries of all states, Union Secretary for Consumer Affairs Keshav Desiraju has said, that "action need to be taken to eliminate any hitches in the supply chain and to ensure an uninterrupted supply of onion so that the scope for speculation in eliminated and the general public are not subjected to any hardship because of price rise".

He has also requested states to intimate the steps taken by them to ensure adequate availability of onions so that the prices are kept under control.