Centre evading responsibility on price rise: Maha minister

Mumbai: Maharashtra Food and Civil Supplies Minister Anil Deshmukh on Tuesday said that Central government was trying to wash its hands off the issue of price rise and is passing the buck to state governments to rein in inflation.

Deshmukh, who attended a conference of food ministers in Delhi recently, told reporters here that Central government is evading its responsibility by holding only state governments responsible towards controlling inflation. He said that Centre was also planning to increase prices of Kerosene by Rs 4 per litre and of gas by Rs 250 per cylinder. Deshmukh said that the Food Security Act was being well implemented in the state. "At the food ministers` conference, union Food minister Ramvilas Paswan commented that Maharashtra is the only large state to have implemented the scheme well other than Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. "Out of the 11 states that have implemented the scheme, five states including Maharashtra have done well while six states have implemented it partially," Deshmukh said. He also informed that Paswan had given time of three months to the remaining states to implement the Food Security Act. Deshmukh also said he had demanded amendments in the Essential Commodities Act. "Criminal cases under provisions of the Act be made non-bailable instead of bailable. Similarly, instead of five-kg food grains per person, the state government wants to revert to the old scheme of 35 kg food grains per ration card," the minister said. Deshmukh also demanded that the quota of kerosene for Maharashtra be increased from the current 34 per cent.