Pawars counter: My portfolios remain with me

Pawar rejected suggestions that he should be divested of some of his workload in the backdrop of criticism over escalating prices of foodgrains.

Even as he asserted that work allocation is the sole prerogative of the Prime Minister,NCP leader and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar,who also holds charge of Food & Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution,today rejected suggestions that he should be divested of some of his workload in the backdrop of criticism over escalating prices of foodgrains.

I have had the same portfolio with me for six years now. Nobody has told me anything so far, Pawar told The Indian Express on the demand to bifurcate the charges under him since it entailed conflict of interest of producers and consumers.

Indicating that such demands had no basis,Pawar maintained that prices have been stable in the last five years. It is only in the last one year that there has been some rise. That too,because of factors beyond our control, he said. But in the same breath,he added that the prerogative of deciding work allocation was that of the Prime Minister.

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Under fire from the Opposition as well as parties in the UPA,including the Congress,over the seeming inability to rein in prices,Pawar sought to defend himself by widening the ambit of the decision-making process. Decision making is not so simple and never taken by an individual. Fixing of prices is done by the CACP (Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices) whose recommendations are forwarded to the ministry concerned. If a need for price revision is supported by the ministry,then the final decision is taken by the cabinet.

He refused to join issue with the Congress or other parties,saying he did feel anyone was targeting him specifically.

On the latest inflation data released today that showed a slight markup,Pawar maintained that they were fortnight-old figures and that prices were actually receding. Pulses prices are going down. So are sugar prices. A lot of wheat and rice is being pumped into the market. Lifting of grains has been good now. So I expect prices to go down he said.

He said 90 per cent of PDS wheat and rice had been lifted so far. Even in states like Bihar and West Bengal,the situation has been promising. In West Bengal,88 per cent rice and 100 per cent wheat has been lifted. For Bihar,the figures are a bit lower,with 63 per cent rice and 61.4 per cent wheat being lifted, he said.

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A meeting of chief ministers convened by Prime Minister on February 6 is scheduled to discuss the price rise issue. A meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) is also to be held shortly on the subject.

On the issue of restoring the ban on wheat futures too,Pawar seemed disinclined,though he added that the decision would have to be taken by the regulator. Actually,in the one year that the ban had been imposed between 2007 and 2008,we did not seen any major impact either way on prices, he said.