Concerned over high food inflation, the Food Ministry today said that it will brainstorm with the finance and agriculture ministries to identify areas putting pressure on prices and work out a solution to contain inflation.
"We are highly concerned about high inflation. We will sit together (with Finance and Agriculture Minister) and discuss which are the areas causing high inflation and work out what can be done," Food and Consumer Affairs Minister KV Thomas told reporters.
Food prices rose to a six-month high of 11.43% for the week ended October 15, driven by soaring milk and vegetable prices.
Thomas, who had a meeting with UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on high inflation last week, said his ministry will seek the help of cooperatives in controlling inflation.
"We will use services of agri-cooperatives NCCF and NAFED to control food prices," the minister said on the sidelines of a NCCF function.
A concerned Gandhi had last Saturday discussed the steps needed to check high prices with Thomas.
Food and Consumer Affairs Secretary Rajeev Aggarwal said the ministry would propose more financial support to NCCF and NAFED in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) so that they could provide all consumer items to people at a subsidised rate.
Prominent agri-cooperative agencies Nafed and NCCF played crucial role in providing onions at concessional prices to people in Delhi when retail prices of the bulb had soared to Rs 80-85 a kg early this year.
Thomas said the National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India (NCCF) is doing a good job and we want role of cooperatives to be strengthened in controlling food prices.