New Delhi:
A day after he received much flack for a dismissive comment about an emotive issue, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar accepted personal blame for rising prices on Tuesday, saying he was just focused on his job, not on cricket.
Pawar told NDTV: "I am working very hard to control prices." The minister hastened to clarify that his statement yesterday that he was not an astrologer when asked when prices would come down, had been seen in the wrong context.
The minister has been under attack as prices soar through the roof. The statistics are sobering inflation touched an 11-year high of almost 20 per cent last month.
The Cabinet is now finally meeting on the crisis on Wednesday. It will discuss rising prices of essentials like sugar, rice and wheat. Some important decisions are expected, like abolishing import duties on some commodities.
The government may also extend the deadline for import of tax-free white sugar to December 2010. India's sugar output in 2009-10 is being pegged at 15.3 million tonnes while the domestic consumption is likely to be 23 million tones, a shortfall of close to eight million tones.
Pawar squarely blamed the Uttar Pradesh government for the rise in sugar prices, accusing it of not taking corrective steps to allow refining of raw sugar in the mills being imported. He said he had written to Mayawati asking her to lift the ban.
Meanwhile, the BJP has used the price rice issue to attack the Prime Minister. "The entire food economy is mismanaged and for this I will not only blame Sharad Pawar but Manmohan Singh who is himself an economist .Why is it so that during the tenure of an economist PM, our agricultural economy is in a mess?" asked the BJP spokesperson, Ravishankar Prasad.
Pawar told NDTV: "I am working very hard to control prices." The minister hastened to clarify that his statement yesterday that he was not an astrologer when asked when prices would come down, had been seen in the wrong context.
The minister has been under attack as prices soar through the roof. The statistics are sobering inflation touched an 11-year high of almost 20 per cent last month.
The Cabinet is now finally meeting on the crisis on Wednesday. It will discuss rising prices of essentials like sugar, rice and wheat. Some important decisions are expected, like abolishing import duties on some commodities.
The government may also extend the deadline for import of tax-free white sugar to December 2010. India's sugar output in 2009-10 is being pegged at 15.3 million tonnes while the domestic consumption is likely to be 23 million tones, a shortfall of close to eight million tones.
Pawar squarely blamed the Uttar Pradesh government for the rise in sugar prices, accusing it of not taking corrective steps to allow refining of raw sugar in the mills being imported. He said he had written to Mayawati asking her to lift the ban.
Meanwhile, the BJP has used the price rice issue to attack the Prime Minister. "The entire food economy is mismanaged and for this I will not only blame Sharad Pawar but Manmohan Singh who is himself an economist .Why is it so that during the tenure of an economist PM, our agricultural economy is in a mess?" asked the BJP spokesperson, Ravishankar Prasad.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
