Feb.08 : The eight-hour meeting of chief ministers convened by the Prime Minister on Saturday ended, predictably, with the formation of a committee to tackle the problem. It appears to be a hallmark of this government — when pushed into a corner, form a committee, or an empowered group of ministers, or just a group of ministers. Food prices have been going up for nearly eight months, yet this government did nothing concrete about it.

The seriousness of the deliberations can be gauged from the fact that the meeting did not even mention how unsold or un-dispatched stocks of 72,684.3 metric tonnes of sugar meant for the public distribution system was sold in the open market in September 2009 at a profit of Rs 123 crores by the sugar barons of Maharashtra. The news appeared in this newspaper on the day of the PM’s meeting (Ministry let sugar barons profit on sugar meant for poor, February 6). No one has as yet denied the veracity of our report. These undelivered stocks of sugar, meant for the ration shops or the public distribution system, were hoarded by the sugar barons. Why did the Prime Minister, or the finance minister, or anyone else in authority not take the Maharashtra chief minister to task for this? Why was agriculture minister Sharad Pawar not questioned about it considering his closeness to the sugar barons? The meeting, from reports emanating in the media, indicate that the political will did not exist to tackle the real issues: corruption and mismanagement in the distribution system. While holding no brief for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, the point he raised about the Congress promising food grains at Rs 3 per kg in its election manifesto, and failing to do so, was pertinent. If the party had proceeded to implement this sincerely, it would have found the loopholes and leakages in the distribution system. The Prime Minister announced the formation of a national mission on pulses. The sincerity of the PM is beyond doubt. But what assurance is there that this mission will not meet the fate of the earlier one? Why is no responsibility being fixed on those responsible for turning the earlier mission into a failure, or scuttling it?Somehow, the deliberations of the meeting do not inspire confidence that the government is serious about tackling the food situation because, even though they have been aware of the drought and the possible shortage of food grains, they did nothing about it. Pulses are a four-month crop. The agriculture ministry and the chief ministers, for instance, could have initiated inter-cropping with the sugar cane crop or any other crop. There were suggestions that multinational companies that use sugar in their beverages and biscuits should be made to import their sugar, and not use domestic sugar, during this crisis. On the contrary, we hear of harebrained schemes from Mr Pawar’s party, which calls for people to consume less sugar. How can such schemes counter wrong polices — like Mr Pawar miscalculating sugar production and allowing sugar exports with abandon? The very same chief ministers are in the new committee formed to tackle the crisis. In any case, the supply side is improving as global prices are going down and the sugar crops in Brazil, South Africa and Australia are expected to be good. What is needed is a strong public distribution system for the crores of people below the poverty line. This is a challenge, and unless this is met headlong, the hardships for the poor will continue.