The rising prices of food items, vegetables, pulses etc have been a cause of serious concern as it has disturbed the arithmetic of the common household. Public anger comes out in form of protests across the country except for Jammu and Kashmir. The civil society, NGOs, Consumer Protection bodies and public spirited activists always agitate on such issues of common man's concern when our national nutritional level is far below in International index.
Go to the market and you will astonished to see the price tags of vegetables and pulses which are pushing upward despite the assurance by the Government of India that it would contain the prices of pulses by making substantial imports. Even the government has done it too yet the demand and supply has wretched the plan.
The situation in our state is further worse because the machinery to control prices and hoarding often has paralytic strokes and we do not have much public spirited movement on the streets.
With everyday food items such as pulses, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, the staple diet of millions ought to be the concern of the policy-makers at national and state levels.
Our state does not have much area under Pulses and oil seed production. Due to different topography, while oil seeds production is Kashmir valley, pulses production confined within plains of Jammu region thus meager production. Further, due to small land holdings, farmers are not taking cultivation of pulses on bigger chunk of land. Thus our state is mostly dependent on import of pulses- the only staple protein diet, to meet the domestic demand.
According to reports, as in the previous years, it is the price of popular pulses that have seen a sudden and sharp spurt in recent days. Last year, the government had taken steps to ensure that there was no inordinate pressure on the price of pulses.
A buffer stock on the lines of wheat and rice was supposed to be built for release in periods of shortage. Given that production of pulses was hit due to two successive years of drought, government agencies had contracted imports from Malaysia, Canada and other producing countries. Clearly, there is a mismatch in supply and demand, with the hoarders exploiting the situation to make a killing by raising prices of some pulses to even Rs 200 per kilogram.
The government is keen to put a cap of Rs 120 per kg on the price of all varieties of pulses. This will prove difficult should the supply continue to be poor in the current season before the onset of the monsoon. However, the authorities have done well to clamp down on unscrupulous traders and speculators. Reacting to the sudden spurt in prices of essential food items, a number of steps were taken in the last couple of days.
This should help warn the black-marketers and hoarders not to exploit the situation for fear of stringent punitive action by the Central and State authorities. Also, in order to ensure that sugar prices remain in line, the government clamped a 20 per cent duty on sugar exports. Since international prices of sugar are ruling high, the additional duty on its exports will help stabilize both supply and prices of the sweetener in the domestic market.
Due to delayed harvest in Brazil, the world's largest producer of sugar, sugar prices in the global market have witnessed over 50 per cent increase in recent weeks.
The average yearly rise in the prices of pulses is a staggering 31 per cent, though overall retail food inflation was about 8 per cent in May this year. Hopefully, the urgency shown by various government agencies in checking the spurt in food prices will result in moderating them in the coming weeks and months.
Cracking down on speculation and blackmarketing aside, the government needs to ensure abundant supplies of essential food items to check the problem of high prices at this time every year.
