New cell to track food prices soon

livemint.com:

general elections on the horizon, the Centre is planning to create a special cell under the Department of Food and Public Distribution to strengthen price monitoring of essential commodities such as food grains, pulses, wheat, rice, maize and other food items through a thorough analysis. Since 2017, an interministerial committee (IMC) has been reviewing essential commodities’ prices and policies every week, after collecting data from the website of the department of consumer affairs.

The IMC comprises a committee of ministers and a committee of secretaries (CoS) from the ministries of agriculture, food & public distribution and commerce, among others, and is currently headed by home minister Amit Shah. Queries sent to the Department of Food and Public Distribution remained unanswered.

While the IMC already keeps an eye on food prices, a need is felt for a special cell that will alert it and various government agencies to large variations in domestic and international prices of key food items. Such a cell would augment the existing manpower of CoS for this work, the official informed.

“Till now, the special cell has not been created, and the work envisaged by the CoS is being carried out by a division of the department in addition to its own work," the official said. The special cell would not look at edible oils and sugar, as these are tracked by the directorate of sugar and edible oil.

“The officials of this division have domain knowledge in edible oils and sugar only, but now, a complete analysis of wheat, rice, and maize, too, is required to be done as the ambit of IMC has broadened," the official added. “It has been requested that two AD (additional director) or DD (deputy director)-level economic service officers