PM promises prices will stabilise soon

NEW DELHI: In a bid to quell the price rise fires, PM Manmohan Singh on Saturday set up a panel of CMs, which he will head to consider measures to curb food inflation.

He said the government did not want to take any chances with food security in the midst of a failed monsoon but the poll promise for a Food Security Act was not forgotten. He also assured that the worst of food inflation was over and the situation will ease soon. “... the worst is over. I am confident that we’ll soon be able to stabilise food prices,” he said.

Though the PM was fairly positive in his references to agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, referring to the NCP leader having drawn attention to the wide difference between retail and farm prices, Pawar is understood to have declined to address a press conference.

With a Congress Working Committee meeting flaying him for “talking up” prices, Pawar was in no mood to invite a media interrogation. The criticism found an echo in the CMs’ meet with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar questioning the desirability of statements that affect ‘market sentiments’.

Kumar and other CMs, while emphasizing the criticality of the PDS for succouring the inflation-hit people , said the list be expanded, in the light of the Suresh Tendulkar report to cover more people. Besides pitching for a BPL list revision ahead of the implementation of the food security law, the CMs also forged a common stand against any increase in the prices of kerosene and LPG.

The PM’s panel will also include CMs of Andhra, Assam, Bihar, Bengal, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, TN, MP and Chhattisgarh besides the Union finance and agriculture ministers.