प्रिसे रिसे

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RAJ ARTHA
The whole country is almost burning in a galloping price-rise situation. This is a statement neither made by the political parties nor the mass media. In fact this is the real ooh aah ouch of 110 crore population of the country. In fact there have been numbers of price rise situation erupted in the country but this is perhaps the first time when the pocket rich middle class, (the class which have become more affluent after the arrival of new economy policy) have been heated hard by the present price-rise situation, as reported by our electronic media. SO one could easily imagine the condition of that two-third population of the country who is poor, leaves either in remote rural areas or in the city slums and belongs to lower income group or a daily wage earner. In these circumstances, this major chunk of population is left with inadequate and insufficient income for its survival.
We have been witnessed of many situations when massive spurt in the prices of one, two or three commodities like onion, potato, mustard oil or sugar have almost changed the government both at the centre and state level. But now, there is not a one or two or three commodities which are burning in the flame of price rise, almost every daily uses items are witnessing tremendous upheavals in their prices. And these prices are increasing day by day, whether it is Atta(flour), pulses ,rice ,potato ,onion, almost all green vegetables, sugar, tea leaf, turmeric and many more. These items’ prices have been grown by 50 percent to even by 500 percent. The most amazing thing is that this unprecedented galloping price-rise have made the ruling Congress party rather more secure, stable and on a winning note. The result of the last three assembly election clearly approves this perception.
The second most amazing things what we get that despite the mammoth price-rise situation, the rate of inflation is still stagnant and is reeling under 5 percent. Perhaps this is the reason that government of India in general and finance minister in particular is not over worried about this situation. The version of two important dignitaries of this UPA government , Sharad Pawar , the union agriculture & consumer affairs minister and M S Ahluwalia (Deputy chairman, planning commission) both had given their statement in the recently held economic editor conference at New Delhi .Sharad Pawar said ,there is no immediate hope of falling down of prices until the Rabi crops come. He openly said that the government can not resist this present price rise situation. Now we come to the second statement which was made by MS Ahluwallia he says why middle class is worried about the price rise. Are they not happy to delegate some part of there income to the farming community. He was meant that this price rise has enabled the farming community’s income to grow further.
When we analyze the statements of the both the ministers, we find that both are far-far away from the actual facts and ground reality of the country .One thing is absolutely clear that while talking about the price rises, both statements were centered around the agriculture and agriculturist (farmers).Sharad Pawar wanted to say, that the supply of the agricultural commodities is not sufficient enough to meet out the demand of the country. So we are waiting the next crop to come. Meanwhile we have to depend on costlier imports.

Not to mention here that the price is always determined by the demand and supply forces of the concerned items. Firstly we should know that our country is quite capable to produce each an every agriculture commodity. Secondly it is not only self reliant rather it is a surplus producer on many counts whether it is wheat, rice, sugar, tea, potato, onion etc. We do not have petroleum kind of situation on the front of agriculture. It is true we can not produce fuel as per our needs but we can produce the food items even beyond our needs. It means on the petroleum front we are not a surplus state like the gulf countries and on the food front we are not a deficient state like the European countries. That is why we import about two-third of our petroleum needs from the foreign countries. In the same way European countries import about fifty percent of their foods needs. Now a question arises why the country is presently facing supply deficit of almost all agricultural commodities viz. wheat, rice, pulses, oilseeds, milk, potato, onion, tea, sugar. Out of these items, India has been the largest producer of milk &sugar in the world. Under these circumstances what we see that the supply mechanism of most of the agricultural commodities have been badly hampered by its pricing policies .The pricing policy of government of India which is generally reflected by the MSP( minimum support price) ,procurement price , PDS price and open market operations, these all mechanisms have been totally failed. These pricing systems have made the different produces of farmers under-priced and thus made their life miserable. For the last 60 years in India, the farming communities have never got a reasonable return on their input costs and labor employed. It never gives stimulus to produce more and more so that regular and timely supply of the different foods items can be ensured in the market. In spite of tall claims made by the government that she has been very friendly to the farmers in terms of providing input facilities like seed, fertilizer, loan, irrigation network )technical know how etc. These all measures have been managed very badly and have been crippled with corruptions. There has been complete misuse of this money allocated in the name of input subsidy. It has nothing to do with the lot of farmers. Factor like providing better remunerative prices to the farmers, has been always negligent. The agriculture cost and price commission have never measured accurately the input cost of cultivation. It resulted in huge deterrence to the farming community of the country. Generally govt. says, it doesn’t want to make agriculture as an industry because agriculturist will have to pay taxes as industry does. But the fact is that despite paying number of taxes persons involved in industry and organized services are becoming richer day by day, whenever persons involved in agriculture, even without paying taxes becoming poorer and poorer. So only one option is left that is providing better prices to the farmer, not only for the raising their income, but also for maintaining the regular and adequate supply chain of the agricultural items. Though it requires many other things also like ensuring storage facilities, better farmer- trader link and strict implementation of MSP during the harvesting season. So the post harvest management becomes very crucial in this regard. There should be always a minimum and maximum price cap for all the agricultural produces. If the rising prices of agricultural commodities are a problem, the steep falling down prices of the agriculture commodities is not the lesser one. Rather it is a bigger problem which is mainly attributed to the present crisis of supply management. The irony is that wheat is sold at Rs. 7-8 per kg during the harvesting season, is now being sold at Rs. 16 per kg. The potato one time was sold at Rs 2 per kg is now Rs. 20 per kg. The onion which was one time sold at Rs10 per quintal is now being sold at Rs. 2000 per quintal. Now the million dollar question is per kg wheat at Rs. 7-8, per kg potato at Rs. 2. Can it meet the cost of farmers? No never. This is the reason, if a farmer gets the prices of his produces under priced in one crop season whether due to non implementation of MSP or due to non- availability of procurement agencies, he does not get impetus to make cultivation for the next crop season, ultimately resulted in lesser supply.
So Mr. M S Ahluwalia is totally wrong when he says that the present price rise is benefiting the farmers. Actually it is benefiting the traders, hoarders. Farmers are made for the distress; traders are made for the prosperity. If farmers get their due prices they will always get incentives to produce more and more and thus the consumers will be left with adequate supply of food supply, resulting in stabled prices. MS Ahluwalia must know this that 95 percent of the farmers have no any surplus food grain particularly during the off season. Neither they have storage facilities, nor they have alternative source of income so that they are not in a situation to preserve their produces for more than two months after the harvesting time. So the price incentive is a key to the several agricultural problems. If govt. wants to avail permanent demand- supply equilibrium, it should fix the maximum gap of 50 percent between the prices at what farmers sold their produces and the prices which the consumer is purchasing at. But before this, govt. should strictly ensure a reasonable and cost plus prices mechanism, for all their agricultural produces which the farmer produce and also make an environment ,so that prices can’t falling down further. Off- course, there may be some exception of this situation. In condition like war, drought, floods, strikes, price increases up not just because of the supply- restraints.
Our farmers have to be always given handsome prices for their commodities like wheat, rice, sugarcane, oilseed, pulses, potato, onion, milk, and fruits etc. The both under pricing and over priced selling of these items must be made a criminal offence.
Apart from the agricultural items the whole term of UPA has been badly renowned for the price- rise of many items starting from steel to cement, from petroleum products to gold. The stock market, the money market, the bullion market, the real estate market, these all have been on a very high note during this tenure. This govt. had patronized the boom kind of situation in the economy, so it always had a double digit rate of inflation. Now for last one year the global recession has made the country’s economy on a down slide note, resulted in lower rate of inflation but very surprisingly the prices of essential commodity are increasing skyrocketing high ,but who will care it ? We are a democracy and perhaps public has mandated this price rise considering this facts that this is a non treated disease.