New Delhi, February 5
The meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) today witnessed a veiled attack on Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar over his handling of the ministry and the resultant rise in the prices of essential commodities.
Although, Pawar was not named during the deliberations chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the NCP leader was at the receiving end as agitated Congress leaders expressed serious concern over skyrocketing food prices and asked the government to take immediate remedial measures to contain them.
Several speakers objected to Pawar’s periodic public statements about the possibility of a rise in prices of some commodities, adding that such statements demoralised the public. The senior leaders were not expected to make such irresponsible and unwarranted statements, it was felt.
The functioning of the FCI, which is under the administrative control of Pawar’s ministry, came in for severe criticism from a number of members, especially Chief Ministers of the north-east states. They complained that the FCI is notorious for not delivering food stocks in time for the PDS and even when it was delivered, the quality was invariably very poor.
The Congress sources said the members also made suggestions on containing prices, which included the enactment of a draconian law to check hoarding and minimising the role of middlemen. Pointing to
the huge difference between the wholesale and retail prices, members said the price paid to the farmer for his produce was very low as compared to what the consumer paid.
“We are trying to control inflation through increase in production. We had a serious global economic crisis, we have faced it and we will carry forward that process,” the PM told the CWC. Mukherjee, who made a detailed presentation on the economic situation and the steps taken by the Centre to rein in prices, assured the CWC that the situation would improve soon.
Although price rise was the dominant issue at today’s meeting, the CWC also dwelt on the Telengana imbroglio and the situation in Maharashtra in the light of the extremely provocative statements being made by the Shiv Sena.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram updated the CWC on the steps taken by the government to the demand for a separate state of Telengana, adding that the terms of reference of the committee set up on this issue would be finalised soon.
