Centre calls state food ministers' meet on Friday

The Centre has called a day-long meeting of state food and consumer affairs ministers on Friday in the national capital to discuss prices of essential food commodities, implementation of food law and other consumer-related issues.

The fourth National Consultation Meeting will be chaired by Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

Seven union ministers handling agriculture, fertiliser, commerce and industry, food processing, health, petroleum and textiles departments are also scheduled to be participating in the event, an official statement said.

High on the agenda of the meeting will be a discussion on measures required to maintain and manage prices of essential food items at a reasonable level through an appropriate policy intervention, it added.

The ways to improve the robustness of the price data of essential food items currently being reported by the government centres and setting up of a Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) at the state level to tackle inflationary trends in important agri-horticultural commodities will be deliberated.

Implementation of food law, enforcement of the provisions of Essential Commodities Act and Prevention of Black Marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act among other issues will be taken up for discussion.