Howrah News Service -  Latest news and headlines on Howrah,West Bengal and World: 'Bring policy statement to tackle food insecurity'

'Bring policy statement to tackle food insecurity'
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NewsByte on 31 March, 2008 02:50:00
 
New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today asked the government to come out
with a policy statement addressing long and short measures to contain the
serious crisis of food insecurity looming over the country and take the
Parliament into confidence.
It ridiculed the role of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the mismanagement of
food economy by noting that the well known economist has been at the helm for
the last four years.
The party further added that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government
had left a surplus food economy but it lapsed into an economy of scarcity during
the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, where per capita availability of
food grains has fallen to the levels of 1970s.
"It is known that during the NDA regime, particularly between the years
2000-2003 had the highest record of buffer stock of food grains and food grains
worth Rs 7000 crores were even exported in the year 2003 as plenty was available
in India," noted a release issued by the party today.
"Now the situation is so alarming that the prices of essential food articles
have shown an alarming rise even after the presentation of the so-called
pro-people budget in March," the release added.
The saffron party further claimed that a series of unexplained steps taken by
the UPA have damaged the moral of Indian farmers.
Sub standard wheat was imported at higher prices from abroad while paying
Indian farmers less during procurement. When the prices of pulses were rising
enormously, in disregards of all directives, exemptions were granted to
unscrupulous exporters to export Indian pulses and earn huge profit. Only on
BJP's instigation, a CBI enquiry was instituted, the release stated.
It also charged UPA government of criminal indifference towards the need to
check prices which coupled with food insecurity has made the common man the
biggest victim.