Enough food stocks to feed poor: PM

RAMSAR (RAJASTHAN): The country has sufficient food grain stocks to feed the Public Distribution System that will ensure no poor person goes hungry, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday.

Admitting the impact of poor monsoon on prices, he told reporters here that "no one has control over drought. It's a severe drought. If you look at numbers, it's in many parts (and naturally) it affects prices."

However, there was "sufficient food grain stocks and we can reinforce our Public Distribution System to such a level that no BPL (Below Poverty Line) family should be going hungry," he said.



The government had earlier said that there was 50 million tonnes of buffer food grain stocks. This, according to experts, was enough to feed the entire country for three whole months in the event of any contingency.

Although half of the country was reeling under drought, rains in the last week have reduced monsoon deficiency from over 30 per cent to near 26 per cent.

This, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said, would result in an up to 20 per cent shortfall in Kharif crop production.