Foods stocks dwindling, country staring at severe food crisis: Congress

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday flagged “dwindling food stocks” and said the country was staring at a “severe food crisis” for which the Modi government’s “anti-farmer” policies were responsible.
The Opposition party said the dwindling food stocks in the country were at a 15-year low and at a 50-year low in per capita terms.
Also Read Rupee at life-time low to hit imports, overseas education, travel Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, newly-appointed Kisan Congress chief Sukhpal Khaira also demanded the immediate setting up of a committee to ensure a legal guarantee for the Minimum Support Price as committed to the farmers’ umbrella body Samyukt Kisan Morcha before the withdrawal of the farm law agitation.
Accusing the Modi government of adopting “anti-farmer” policies, Congress leaders Khaira and media department head Pawan Khera highlighted how the central government has slashed wheat allocations to 10 states including Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh because of a fall in wheat output.
Khaira said while Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal has been desperately urging states to increase paddy production after many years of asking them to reduce paddy acreage, farmers are reeling under fertiliser shortages and spiralling fertiliser prices.
“This mismanagement is also accompanied by betrayal and the Modi government is still trying to help its billionaire friends by bringing the discredited farm bills in by the backdoor,” he alleged, adding that it is either “ignoring or subverting” the agreements it reached with the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) to end the farmers’ movement.