Vegetable prices: hard luck, reiterates Pawar

Pawar again Increasingly on the defensive over the almost unprecedented rise in the price of onions and other vegetables, agriculture and food minister Sharad Pawar reiterated on Tuesday that said his ministry had no direct role in the cultivation and distribution of perishable items, and was mainly concerned with cereals and sugarcane.

Pawar, who incidentally is also in charge of 'consumer affairs', told reporters in New Delhi that it is unfair to expect his ministry to answer for everything.

"I have said it earlier as well that the agriculure ministry in this country concentrates only on rice, wheat, sugarcane, pulses and seeds. If any farmer grows any particular vegetable, we neither have control over it nor do we have any scheme for it," he said.

Farmers themselves decide which crop to grow, seeing local conditions and in which mandi to sell, he added.

He, however, said onion prices have started coming down with increase in arrival from from Bhavnagar in Gujarat and Nashik in Maharashtra. 

In fact the union government has virtually given up on any pretence at controlling the soaring vegetable prices. A two-day brainstorming session held by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with his senior colleagues Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram, Pawar, and Planning Commission chief Montek Singh Ahluwalia earlier this month proved a fizzle.