A group of ministers headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to meet tomorrow to discuss the government?s open market wheat sale programme and also review the ban on exports of wheat and rice imposed earlier this year, official sources said.
The government plans to offload up to 60 lakh tonnes of wheat in the next few months in the open market from its buffer stocks to cool prices and also to make the commodity available to poor people.
As per official sources, the government is working on a combination of various measures including selling wheat directly to flour millers through an auction process to operationalise its open market wheat sale programme.
The other steps being considered are directing state governments to sell wheat directly to consumers, allowing distribution of wheat to above poverty line families through PDS and also direct sale by Food Corporation of India, sources said.
Earlier, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar had said the Centre has enough stock to sell up to 6 mt of wheat in the open market. Pawar further mentioned that the government has kept 5.5 mt of wheat as buffer stock against the usual practice of 4.5 mt. In addition, it has also allocated 3.0 mt as strategic reserve and another 3.0 mt for open market sale.