No rotting of pulses; price rise due to supply concern: govt

New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI) The Centre on Friday refuted
reports that lakhs of tonnes of imported pulses are rotting at
ports and affirmed that the shooting prices of tur, urad and
moong are the result of a demand-supply mismatch.

"After the report of the Shipping Ministry, these PSUs
(MMTC, STC and PEC) and Nafed and even the Pulses Importers
Association, the truth has come out that no such thing (pulses
are rotting at ports) has happened," Union Food and
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said in the Lok Sabha (Lower
House of Indian Parliament) replying in a discussion on price
rise of essential items.

"When we investigated, these PSUs have written to us that
the pulses that they have imported have not rotten and are
also not in poor condition," he said.

However, the minister added that 6,000 tonnes of pulses
imported by Nafed was stuck in the Kolkata port "as the
clearance on helath ground took some time and, therfore, the
customs department had not cleared it".

"Today Nafed deposited all the relevent papers and the
Customs department has cleared all the stocks."

Asserting that the government did not import any pulses,
the minister, however, said MMTC, STC, PEC and co-operative
major Nafed have contracted 10.29 lakh tonnes of pulses, of
which 9.13 lakh tonnes have already landed here as on July 22.

Of the quantity that has arrived, 7.03 lakh tonnes had
been offloaded in the domestic market and also sold to some
states which had earlier requested for it.

The minister also maintained that supply constraints have
pushed the rates of pulses and reiterated the government's
commitment to contain the price rise.

"The government will do everything possible for bridging
the gap between supply and demand of pulses," he said.

The country produced 14.66 million tonnes of pulses last
year against its annual domestic requirement of over 18
million tonnes. The deficit is bridged through imports.

Pointing out the obstacles in imports, Pawar said only
5-6 nations in the world have surplus pulses and this surplus
reserve only accounts for about 5 million tonnes this year.

India imports about half of the surplus quantities that
are available in the global market, he said.

Despite imports, Pawar said, the gap between demand and
supply remains particularly in case of tur, urad and moong and
therefore in some places people are paying Rs 90 a kg for tur
and elswhere it is Rs 100.

The minister, however, noted that the sowing area under
pulses has increased this year and "if it rains in the pulses
producing regions in the next 3 weeks, the situation may
improve". PTI BKP
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