Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday urged states and Union territories to hasten reforms in the public distribution system (PDS) for the effective implementation of the Food Security Bill.
Inaugurating a two-day conference of chief secretaries of states and Union territories, the prime minister said, “I would urge you to pay urgent attention to end-to-end computerisation of the PDS. We should be in a position to effectively implement the Food Security Bill by the time it becomes an Act of Parliament.”
“We have made rapid progress in providing Aadhaar numbers to about 13 crore residents, which would help in improving the delivery of programmes, particularly for the poor and the under-privileged, and in eliminating leakages.”
Terming the 8.4 per cent growth in gross domestic product GDP in 2010-11 as creditable, especially in a crisis-ridden world economy, Singh pegged this financial year’s growth at 7 - 7.5 per cent. “Monetary tightening, together with a difficult global economic environment, particularly the lingering euro zone crisis, has impacted the rate of growth adversely,” he said.
The PM also urged states to take steps to curb inflation. He said inflation was a persistent problem last year and the steps taken by the government and the Reserve Bank of India had led to a continuous decrease in inflationary pressure on primary food articles in recent weeks. Overall inflation had also eased, he added. He asked states to play a crucial role in controlling inflation and give more attention to modernisation of agricultural research. “There is a need to review and amend the Agriculture Produce Marketing Act to help farmers bring their products to retail outlets and allow retailers to directly purchase from them. This would bring better remuneration, check wastage and allow competitive prices to prevail in retail markets,” he said.
The prime minister said infrastructure deficit was another area of concern and added states should pay more attention to development in this field. He laid particular emphasis on roads, highways and irrigation facilities.
