The UPA government appears to be groping in the dark on the key issue of tackling high food prices hitting the aam aadmi.
Surprisingly, with the issue of price rise haunting the government once again, its initiative taken almost a year ago to fix the problem has failed to deliver the desired result, reflecting the callousness of the system.
On April 8, 2010, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had formed three working groups headed by chief ministers to address the price rise problem. While Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi headed the group on consumer affairs, Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda headed the group on agricultural growth. The Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia headed the group on food and public distribution system.
Asked to submit their reports in two months, only the working group headed by the Haryana chief minister has acted. The other two working groups are yet to submit their reports indicating the casual approach with which the government has been handling the price rise issue. Interestingly, while food inflation had reached 17 per cent in the first week of April 2010, it is still hovering over 16 per cent.
Sadly, the government, which appears to be helpless, is taking recourse to desperate measures yet again. While Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee discussed price rise with the state finance ministers on January 19, the new minister of state (independent charge) food and consumer affairs K.V. Thomas plans to repeat the exercise with state food ministers shortly.