New- Delhi,21: Maharashtra Government decides to bring Price Control Act
2016 for pulses(Dal) to curb rising prices to stop black marketing , and need
support from centre for this act, said
by Food&Supply Minister of Maharashtra Shri Girish Bapat at the meeting
held at Vigyan bhawan New Delhi.
The Annual Consultative Meeting between the
centre and states was held today. Minister for Agriculture and Farmers welfare
,Ministers of food and Civil Supplies & Consumer affairs of States/UTs and
senior officers from the above department from centre and states attended the
meeting.
The prices of the pulses will be
decided by the administrative divisions.The price control act will be strict,
by this act it will be control over black marketing and hoarding of pulses in
the state.
Centre has asked the states to rationalize stock limit on pulses for
milers,producers and importers. There should be a logical and scientific
formula for stock limits separately in consuming states and surplus states so
that supply chain mechanism remains smooth and pulses are available at
reasonable prices.
Shri Ram Vilas Paswan, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public
Distribution requested states to exempt pulses from VAT and other local taxes
in the lean period. It may help cool the prices of the pulses by 5% to 7% . it
was also recommended that importers of pulses should display stock position on
public platforms such as portals of Ministry of Consumer Affairs or States
Government portals to bring in more transparency about availability of stock.
It was strongly felt that Government agencies should opt for long term supply
contracts in place of tenders for time to time import of pulses for building up
buffer stock.
Regarding the
prices of sugar, Shri Paswan said that he has written to the chief Ministers of
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu requesting them to keep a
close watch on the release and stock held by sugar mills to ensure availability
in the domestic market. He said that production linked export incentive scheme
has been withdrawn midway to ensure adequate availability of the sugar in the
domestic market. The states have been asked to implement stock limit
effectively.
Paswan said the government is effectively
using Price Stabilization Fund for creating buffer stock of pulses and onions.
So far about 50,000 MT Kharif and about 25,000 Rabi pulses have been procured
and 26,000 MT contracted for import for buffer stock. Out of this 10,000 MT
have allocated to the States. Requests from other States are awaited for
further allocations.
He said
that the Centre has further decided to strengthen price monitoring mechanism by
including more markets for collecting price data. He said that State
Governments have also been requested to set up price monitoring mechanism at
their level also to take timely action to ensure availability.
Appreciating the efforts of State Governments for implementing National Food Security Act, Shri Paswan said now 72 crores people across 33 States/UTs have become eligible for wheat at Rs2/kg and rice at Rs 3/kg. He said now States should focus better targeting of food subsidy. He said End-to-End computerization of TPDS would certainly help in this venture. So far about 56% ration cards have been seeded with Aadhar cards against the total Aadhar coverage of about 83%. More than 1,15,909 FPSs are automated across the country by installing e-Point of Sale devices, and this count is likely to be increased to 3,06,526 FPSs by March, 2017. About 1.62 crore ineligible ration cards have been eliminated and food grains worth Rs. 10,000 crore have been better targeted.
Shri Paswan said decision was also taken to ensure online allocation of food grain up to FPS within two months in the States where it has yet to be done. So far it is being made in 25 States. States were also requested to expedite preparation for online procurement of food grains by their agencies. Farmers mobile numbers should be registered and their accounts numbers should be taken for direct deposit of system generated cheques. Remaining non-DCP States were requested to take up DCP operations as it would help in saving food subsidy, enhancing the efficiency of procurement and public distribution & encouraging local procurement to the maximum extent thereby extending the benefits of MSP to local farmers.
In order to strengthen storage facilities Government has approved a road map for construction of steel Silos of 100 LMT capacity in the next 4-5 years in three phases for both wheat and rice. Depot-Online has been launched for monitoring the operations in 30 FCI Depots on pilot basis and by July this year all the 554 depots of FCI will be online. Shri Paswan expressed hope that these efforts will result in improving food grain management. He said as decided by the conference State Governments will work in coordinated way to ensure availability of essential commodities at reasonable prices.
***********************************************Appreciating the efforts of State Governments for implementing National Food Security Act, Shri Paswan said now 72 crores people across 33 States/UTs have become eligible for wheat at Rs2/kg and rice at Rs 3/kg. He said now States should focus better targeting of food subsidy. He said End-to-End computerization of TPDS would certainly help in this venture. So far about 56% ration cards have been seeded with Aadhar cards against the total Aadhar coverage of about 83%. More than 1,15,909 FPSs are automated across the country by installing e-Point of Sale devices, and this count is likely to be increased to 3,06,526 FPSs by March, 2017. About 1.62 crore ineligible ration cards have been eliminated and food grains worth Rs. 10,000 crore have been better targeted.
Shri Paswan said decision was also taken to ensure online allocation of food grain up to FPS within two months in the States where it has yet to be done. So far it is being made in 25 States. States were also requested to expedite preparation for online procurement of food grains by their agencies. Farmers mobile numbers should be registered and their accounts numbers should be taken for direct deposit of system generated cheques. Remaining non-DCP States were requested to take up DCP operations as it would help in saving food subsidy, enhancing the efficiency of procurement and public distribution & encouraging local procurement to the maximum extent thereby extending the benefits of MSP to local farmers.
In order to strengthen storage facilities Government has approved a road map for construction of steel Silos of 100 LMT capacity in the next 4-5 years in three phases for both wheat and rice. Depot-Online has been launched for monitoring the operations in 30 FCI Depots on pilot basis and by July this year all the 554 depots of FCI will be online. Shri Paswan expressed hope that these efforts will result in improving food grain management. He said as decided by the conference State Governments will work in coordinated way to ensure availability of essential commodities at reasonable prices.
No comments:
Post a Comment