New Delhi: The rising prices of commodities have become a big challenge, and so is making the essential food items affordable to the poor. Now, the Group of Ministers (GoM) on food has decided to take steps to help the poor combat the crisis.
The government will increase the quota of sugar for every family Below the Poverty Line (BPL) family by two kg.
The government's decision to supply additional sugar has come just before the festival season when demand for sugar is normally high.
The GoM, which met in New Delhi, believed to have also discussed the issue of raising support price of sugarcane to farmers, increasing the levy sugar quota for PDS and increasing raw sugar imports without impacting the global prices, sources said.
However, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar did not announce the decisions taken by the GoM -- headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee -- saying the government will have to take prior approval from the Election Commission.
"To announce the decision we have taken, we will have to take the prior approval of the Election Commission," he told reporters after the meeting.
The approval of the Election Commission is essential because of code of conduct to be followed by three states including sugar producing Maharashtra which are going to the assembly polls in October.
Currently, each BPL family receives a fixed quantity of sugar every month on the basis of 500 gram per head.
The GoM believed to have fixed a minimum price of sugarcane for the gur and khansari units, the first of its kind.
The statutory minimum price (SMP) of sugarcane is applicable only to sugar mills. Now, gur and khandsari units would have to pay the same price, sources said.
This is being seen an incentive for sugarcane farmers who have switched to other cash crops over the last year.
(With PTI inputs)