E-Paper
Wheat crisis owing to UPA?s faulty economic policy?
THE SHORTAGE of wheat was a direct outcome of the UPA Government?s new economic policies, alleged Dr Ashish Mital, national secretary of the All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha, in a Press release. The UPA was leading India towards a severe food grain crisis and forced dependence on imperialist countries, like the United States of America, as five MNCs controlled more than 95 per cent of the total global trade in wheat, he alleged.
THE SHORTAGE of wheat was a direct outcome of the UPA Government’s new economic policies, alleged Dr Ashish Mital, national secretary of the All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha, in a Press release.
The UPA was leading India towards a severe food grain crisis and forced dependence on imperialist countries, like the United States of America, as five MNCs controlled more than 95 per cent of the total global trade in wheat, he alleged.
Mital further said wheat stocks had already reached the level of crisis and the country was being forced to import wheat in order to keep the prices within check.
He said in June 2002, the UPA government was boasting of granaries filled with stocks of 648 lakh tonne.
Today, the projected stocks for March end were down to less than 15 lakh tonne of wheat and 120 lakh tonne of rice, he said.
The requirements for central programmes, apart from buffer needs, was 430 lakh tonne for the Antyodya Ann Yojna and 160 lakh tonne for the National Food for Work Programme, he said.
He further alleged that there had been virtually no increase in food grain production for the last six years and it stood at around 210 million tonne.
This was mainly because the subsequent governments were pushing through a policy of diversification of crops towards flowers, vegetables, peppermint and other commercial crops to help the corporates involved in the food industry.
The government’s decision not to increase the minimum support price, to permit private purchasers and encourage future trade in food grain were designed to help private operators and undermine farmers’ savings and self-sufficiency, he alleged.
He said the central executive committee of the All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha had demanded support to farmers in terms of irrigation, electrification, cheap inputs of seeds, insecticides, fertilizers, diesel, remunerative prices and assured government procurement.
