Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has extended its helping hand to Jharkhand in dealing with price rise, especially of food grains. On the request of Food and Civil Supplies Minister Saryu Roy, country’s apex commodity exchange authority would chip in with its experts for managing Jharkhand State Food Corporation activities.
“We met UK Sinha who is Chairman of the SEBI in Mumbai. He on his part has assured us for expert hands in managing the affairs of State’s food corporation. The corporation is here but has not been working very efficiently. A team of experts would soon visit Jharkhand to assess the possibility of running the corporation through professionals,” said Roy after his return from Mumbai on Sunday.
The meeting and assistance from SEBI is important looking at dependency of the State on other States in terms of food grains. “We have to import most of the commodities from outside the State to meet our food demand. In this scenario there is always a possibility of getting food grains on higher rates. There is a need to control the prices of essential commodities in order to save our consumers from food inflation. We want a well established and scientifically proven system to control food prices, especially when future trading is now in the hands of SEBI,” added the Minister.
It is believed that prices of commodities depend mostly on speculative pricing or future trading. Often this leads to inflationary trends which sometime do not match actual prices. large section of consumers has to suffer due to uncertainty of food grain prices. “Our own system in terms of food storage and distribution is not so efficient. The corporation needs investment may be through private participation. We have requested from the SEBI Chairman to show us ways and suggest ideas in either improving the functioning of corporation or replace it with something better institution,” informed a senior official accompanying the Minister.
Jharkhand is especially worried this time due to worst ever drought the State is facing in the just passed kharif season.