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As concerns over the fate of southwest monsoon refuse to subside despite a bright start in June, the government is planning to call a meeting of all state food and civil supplies ministers to discuss rise in prices of food commodities to avert any sudden flare-up.
Officials in the know said in the meeting, which is expected to held around July 7, the state governments will be told to keep a strict check on hoarding and black-marketing of food items and also initiate all possible measures to ensure that there is no stocking of items.
“The states will also be told to effectively utilise the newly created Price Stabilisation Fund (PSS) to ensure that prices of onions and potatoes do not show any artificial increase,” a senior official said.
The fund, with a corpus of Rs 500 crore, enabled states to intervene to ensure the price of onions and potatoes do not spike.
The months of July to October are usually the time when food items show a rising trend. Last year too during the same time, the Centre had held a meeting of the state food ministers to discuss the issue of price. The Centre had moved to make amendments to the Essential Commodities Act make hoarding and black-marketing of food items non-cognisable offence.
The amendments are currently being discussed, with the states as the implementation of the Act is within the purview of the states. The result has been that prices of most essential commodities, barring pulses has remained more or less stable in the last one-year despite a bad monsoon and extensive damage to standing rabi crop in the unseasonal rains.
Food inflation on the basis of wholesale price index dropped from 4.95 per cent in December 2014 to 3.80 per cent in May 2015. However, in pulses, the same rose from 5.93 per cent to 22.84 per cent. The ministers of agriculture and finance, along with food, are likely to participate in the meeting.
Meanwhile, the southwest monsoon maintained its good run over most parts of India. The total cumulative rainfall this year starting from June 1 till June 22 is almost 22 per cent more than normal.
The surge has been primarily due to good showers in Central and Southern Peninsula in the last few days.
In the first 18 days of the June to September southwest monsoon season, the Central India has received 45 per cent more rainfall than normal, while South Peninsula has received 35 per cent more than normal rains. The rains have moved into North India and is expected to hit the national capital in the next two-three days, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in its latest weather update.
According to private weather forecasting agency, Skymet, the southwest monsoon is making a good progress and conditions are favourable for further advance.
"In a couple of days, it is likely to cover Gujarat, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, North India, including parts of Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and hilly states, including Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh," Skymet said.
However, the possibility of things going bad cannot be discounted. The Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in an update said that there could large-scale reduction in rainfall during the first half of July.
