CMs8217; meeting on price rise today

The Prime Minister was reportedly of the view that a conference of Chief Ministers before elections might only give room to them laying the blame on each other8217;s door and not yield any concrete results.

Assuring Mamata Banerjee that a Chief Ministers8217; meeting would be held after the elections, Vajpayee directed that a meeting of Chief Secretaries be called to discuss the situation. The Stateofficials met on November 7, following which some short-term measures were announced by the Government.

Tomorrow8217;s meeting will review the latest price situation in which some moderation has been seen in the prices of onions, potatoes and edible oils and will consider steps to tighten enforcement of some consumer laws.

Following the sharp rise in prices, inflation for the week ending November increased to 8.85 per cent, compared to the same period last year.

In view of the sustained rise in price of primary food articles, inflation was the highest since September 23, 1995. The price rise has been reflected steeply in the Consumer Price Index for industrial workers, which increased to 16.3 per cent in September against 8.2 per cent during the same period a year ago.

According to Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, prices of vegetables, as reflected in the primary food articles, had increased by over 200 per cent during October this year as against the corresponding period last year.

Besides the meetingof Chief Secretaries, a meeting of a group of Economic Ministers was also held on October 31 to review the situation.

At the meeting, the group of ministers decided to abolish import duty on pulses and the special additional customs duty on inputs for vanaspati manufacture.

The ministers also decided to ask National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation NAFED to procure onions from all available sources.

Following the meeting of Chief Secretaries, the Government decided to remove restrictions on the essential commodities movement and extend the ban on onion exports till January 31, as part of the nine-point strategy to check runaway prices.

It also decided to provide a one-time additional allocation of rice, wheat, sugar and palmolein for needy states. State Governments were asked to take stringent action against hoarders and black marketeers and initiate market intervention in a 8220;transparent8221; manner, to deal with skyrocketing prices in the short term.

A decision to set up a nationalforecasting centre for agricultural products for the proper assessment of crop production was taken at the meeting, as also a joint monitoring mechanism between the Central and State Governments to make real time assessment of surplus8217; and deficits, to prepare timely action plans.

The Government also decided to relax the edible oil compulsory packaging order of September 15 to ensure that the poorer sections, who purchase small quantities, are not put to hardship.

States have been asked to repeal cold storage control orders to build up storage capacities. A high level committee will be set up soon for this purpose.