The union agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar has been under fire for not having done enough to control prices of food items. The centre and the states have been playing ping pong with each other over the responsibility for the rise in prices. Pawar has been accused of not having taken timely action to prevent the price rise, for instance, delaying the clearance for imports to tide over lower domestic production. He has stoutly denied this.
However, the PM himself has been talking about this. Now comes another indictment, this time from the PM's Economic Advisory Council. It conducted a review of the Indian economy. I mention two of the points mentioned here:
1) Timely release of food essential to curb price rise
2) Timely imports at early signals of shortfall in production also must
Is Mr Pawar listening?
