New Delhi:
Under fire over rising prices, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday asked state governments to tackle shortages of essential supplies while promising all possible assistance from the Centre.
"It will never be possible to insulate ourselves from the pulls and pressures of international demand and supply. The State governments must forge appropriate strategies to bolster food production and tackle shortages of essential supplies," he said.
Addressing the first annual conference of the Chief Secretaries, Singh reaffirmed Centre's commitment to assist States in everyway it can.
Doing some plain speaking on newer challenges confronting the administrators, the Prime Minister said people today resent "apathy, sloth and corruption in any form and at any level of government more than ever before".
He said the rising expectations of the people made them impatient with the speed at which results were delivered by the government.
"Governance today has become extremely complex... There is clamour for accountability from all quarters - the legislature, the judiciary and the media," he said.
Food security
Singh said the experience in the past two years has brought to the fore the importance of food security and the need for containing prices.
"For some time past, there was a false sense of security that availability of food has ceased to be a concern.
Similarly, many felt that we have been able to control prices," he said, adding growing population and higher levels of living necessitated augmentation of food supplies.
Pointing out that the country's agricultural productivity still ranked far below the best in the world, he asked state governments to focus their energy on it since there was a great scope for raising the output of major crops.
Singh said the importance of making public distribution system strong and efficient to ensure availability of essential commodities to the poor and the common man at reasonable prices cannot be over emphasised.
Observing that inclusive growth was the centre-piece of government's development process, he referred to schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Programme, the National Rural Health Mission, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, the new 15-Point Programme for Welfare of Minorities and Bharat Nirman.
He said the administrators must ensure that these programmes were implemented in "the spirit in which they have been conceived, that road blocks are cleared rapidly, that leakages are plugged and the people get what is intended for them in the quickest and the most efficient manner".
Poor infrastructure
The Prime Minister suggested that the states must place some of their "best and committed" officers as agricultural production commissioners given the importance of farming in the country.
"I notice that in recent years, this job has lost its attractiveness and not the best persons are being appointed to man the position of agricultural production commissioners in the states", he regretted.
Noting that poor infrastructure continued to be a road block in the path of rapid progress, Singh said shortages of electricity, poor roads, over-crowded ports, delayed flights "all retard our economic efficiency and damage our international image".
States which have relatively better infrastructure attracted investment while the others lag behind, he said, adding this was a lesson which all states have to imbibe and "those who have lagged behind have to go that extra mile" in developing their infrastructure rapidly.
On climate change, the Prime Minister said this poses a threat not only to the present but future generations as well. Noting that government attaches immense importance to meeting this challenge, he recalled launching of a National Action Plan on Climate Change encompassing eight National Missions.
"The goals that we have set for ourselves are indeed ambitious. Much of the action in respect of the National Missions has to be taken by the states," he said.