Govt to sell cereals to check price rise: Montek

Ahluwalia is here to attend the 40th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Regretting that states picked up only 10 per cent of the wheat that was allocated to them,Ahluwalia said “now we are going to put out more and also going to be in form of direct sales which will definitely impact the supply and position of cereals”.

The government had decided to increase the quantum of foodgrain a ration card holder can buy in a month by 10 kg in a month.

Driven by higher prices of vegetables,pulses and cereals,the food inflation soared to a decade’s high of about 20 per cent in December. Even the general inflation to over 7 per cent in early January and is expected to cross 9 per cent by March-end.

Reserve Bank of India too in its macro economic review released earlier in the day expressed concern about rising inflation and hinted at taking steps to contain price rise.

The RBI is slated to announce its third quarterly review of the monetary policy on Friday.