Ready to face `difficult situation’:

India PM says enough food amid weak monsoon

India: India’s Prime Minister promised Saturday that no citizen would go hungry as a result of scanty monsoon rains that have threatened the output of rice and other vital crops.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also promised strong action against “hoarders and black marketeers” after the weather office reported that monsoon rains for the past week were 64 percent below average.

The country of nearly 1.2 billion people was facing a “difficult situation” as a result of the weak monsoon, Singh told a meeting of state chief secretaries called to discuss the impact of the weak monsoon. But “we are in a position to ensure adequate availability of foodgrains in drought-affected areas,” he said, thanks to bumper crops in the past two years.

“In no case should we allow citizens to go hungry,” Singh said. The southwest monsoon sweeps the subcontinent from June to September and is critical to agricultural output in India, one of the world’s top producers of rice, wheat and sugar, where just 40 percent of arable land is irrigated. Singh said rice was the worst-hit crop and that agricultural production had been hit around the country “causing distress to farmers.” Some 141 districts across India have declared drought.

Contingency plans to ensure enough water for crops and drinking should be brought into operation without delay, Singh told the state chief secretaries.

A “close watch should be kept on availability of foodgrains and prices of essential commodities,” he added. Food price inflation, already soaring before the monsoon, has been pushed higher by the poor rainfall. Inflation is seen as hitting the poor masses the ruling Congress party’s biggest supporters hardest.

Economists say the weak monsoon could hurt the economy just as it begins to rebound from a slowdown that has hit consumer spending.

New Delhi, Sunday, AFP