Bitter political battle begins over sugar prices

New Delhi: A bitter blame game is rising over sugar prices between Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati.

According to Pawar, the UP government is not cooperating with the Centre in controlling sugar prices. Earlier the UP government had blamed Pawar for the rise in sugar prices.

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Minister remains non-committal on the rising sugar prices blaming the states for the current mess.

“If the states cooperate then I am sure sugar prices can be tamed. I am not an astrologer who can predict when things will fall in place,” Pawar said.

The disagreement between the Agriculture Minister and the Uttar Pradesh government is on two key issues:

* Pawar wants UP to lift the ban on imported raw sugar. UP says all sugar factories have paid for importing sugar, but the imports haven't reached yet.

* Pawar has maintained that sugar prices were likely to rise even before UP banned imported sugar. UP farmers fear that sugar import will impact local prices.

Attributing the current surge in food inflation partly to high sugar prices, the Government said that it has taken a number of steps to ease the inflationary situation.

The Centre allowed duty-free import of raw sugar to tide over the shortfall in domestic production. In the 2008-09, domestic sugar output fell 42 per cent to 15 million tonnes, causing retail sugar prices to more than double.

source: ibnlive.in