To bridge the demand-supply gap and maintain stability in prices of pulses, the Union Government is planning a Government-to-Government contract, said Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan here on Monday.
Addressing presspersons, Mr Paswan said that the Centre had worked out a strategy to import pulses to mitigate the shortage and maintain price stability.
“This year, there will be a demand supply gap of over 76 lakh tonnes. While private importers will be able import only 60 lakh, the Centre is a planning to have a government to government contract to procure the remaining quantity and meet the demand. Our team will go to Myanmar and other countries for this,” he said.
The Minister said the Government has also maintained a buffer stock for which it has already purchased 1,13,000 tonnes of pulses. Apart from this, State Governments have also been asked to purchase pulses (for retail distribution), he said adding that this strategy had resulted in stability of prices.
“This year, our production is lesser than previous years at 170 lakh tonnes. While it was 171 lakh tonnes last year, it was 173 lakh tonnes the year before that. However, the demand is increasing on an average by over 10 lakh tonne per year. This year the demand will be 246 lakh tonnes,” he explained.
Similarly, the Government was also taking steps to check the surge in sugar prices, which have gone up in the last few months.
He said as many as 1.62 crore bogus ration cards had been cancelled all over the country in the last one year. “This will enable distribution of food grains to genuine beneficiaries,” he said.
As many as 3.7 crore cooking gas cylinders had been distributed to the poor in the last one year. The Centre has a target to distributing 5 crore cylinders in the next three years, he added.
