National

“Demand-supply gap led to wheat import”

NEW DELHI: The Opposition staged a walkout in the Lok Sabha on Friday in protest against the government’s refusal to order a CBI probe into wheat imports.

Justifying the import at a high price, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said there was no reason to order a probe.

The demand was made by V.K. Malhotra (BJP) in his calling attention motion on the situation arising out of supply of inferior quality wheat to Below Poverty Line families under the Public Distribution System.

While the Minister’s written response to the motion focussed on the steps taken by the government to address complaints against imported red wheat allocated under the Targeted PDS (TPDS), his reply to Mr. Malhotra’s questions dwelt on why India had to import stocks at a high price.

Mr. Pawar said some of the major producing States had not given enough wheat to the Central kitty. The bulk of the procurement was from Punjab and Haryana. Though procurement from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh was negligible, the Centre met its commitment to allocate wheat for the TPDS in these States. In this scenario, the demand-supply gap was 40 lakh tonnes, to plug which the government decided to import wheat at a time when international prices were admittedly high for reasons beyond India’s control.

Mr. Pawar said there was nothing wrong with the quality of the imported red wheat. An analysis of samples, collected from Food Corporation godowns in States where there were complaints, showed that the wheat conformed to the quality standards prescribed under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1955. Admitting that the imported wheat was not easy on the Indian palate, he said the State governments were told to get stocks for the TPDS tested whenever there were complaints and continue with distribution only if they met the standards.

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