Opp stages walkout, peeved over Nitish’s words

Pranab, however, wanted to know from the Minister what he had done about the point raised by leader of Opposition Manmohan Singh that the panic selling of the produce by farmers was triggered off by a senior FCI official’s statement that their produce was substandard. When Nitish said that he would ask the Food Minister to find out, an angry Pranab accused the Minister of being “too arrogant” and staged a walkout of his party with RJD, AIADMK and Left parties in tow.

There were several heated exchanges between the Minister and Manmohan when the former said it was wrong on the part of the Congress leader to say that the QRs had been dismantled under US pressure.

“When the NDA Government came to power, fresh negotiations were carried out with the WTO with the participation of the US Government and it was agreed that QRs should be dismantled by 2001. We have not done this under US pressure after the Pokhran nuclear tests,” Nitish asserted. But his argument was rejected by both Manmohan and Pranab.

On the issue of procurement of foodgrains, the Minister said it was to the satisfaction of the Government but it could not obtain more procurement because of the limited storage capacity of 4.74 crore tonnes in the country. The Government, he said, was interested in the decentralisation of foodgrain production in the country.