MY VIEWS IN 'LIVE MINT' ON HIGH FOOD PRICES

'Live Mint' story on 13.03.13 : New Delhi should take the blame for high food prices

Comments of Milan K Sinha

We know that country's millions of farmers continue to engage themselves in agricultural activities despite several odds, many of which are avoidable with proper & timely support and intervention by the officials appointed to look after the welfare of the feeders of the country's huge population. Despite having achieved annual food production of more than 250 million tonnes and also having more than adequate food stock in the country, the food prices have been rising month after month making the life of average Indians very difficult to sustain. Clearly, the basic problem lies in mismanagement of food economy of the country and the known reasons have been hoarding, middlemanship, faulty import-export policy etc. Besides this, there is another glaring problem. Can any Govt. functionary right from the concerned central/state ministers down to agriculture officers/food inspectors, give the reason for wastage of millions of tonnes of food grains in a country where every day more than 7000 people die of hunger and over 200 million people sleep hungry every night. Isn't it highly shocking and shameful that about 21 million tonnes of wheat annually perishes due to inadequate storage and distribution, equivalent to the entire production of Australia as reported by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers ( IME) on global food wastage ? What for so many departments with huge work force are there in the country who fail to deliver the goods despite enjoying handsome salary and perks year after year but without any accountability worth the name. In fact, this is a problem created skillfully by a handful of unscrupulous persons enjoying the political blessings and also immunity from prosecution to a greater extent. Naturally, the common farmers and the poor masses would continue to commit suicide or die of hunger till such racket in food management of the country is not busted effectively on a regular basis.

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