New Delhi, Dec 17 (IANS) The government Thursday said it was concerned over rising food prices and has taken several steps to check this.
“The government is concerned about the increase in food prices and has taken several measures to moderate the rise in prices of essential commodities,” Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs V. Narayanasamy told Rajya Sabha.

As per official data released Thursday, the country’s annual food inflation, based on wholesale prices, moved up to 19.95 percent for the week ended Dec 5 from 19.05 percent the week before.

Inflation of primary articles rose 14.98 percent during the week against 13.9 percent in the previous week.

The minister further said arrangements have been made to augment availability of cereals by increasing the minimum support price (MSP) and procurement of wheat for additional allocation under the public distribution system (PDS).

“Other measures include ban on export of wheat and rice, zero import duties on essential food items like sugar, rice, wheat, pulses, edible oils and maize besides allowing public sector units to import pulses,” Narayanasamy said.

According to him, the government has also implemented the National Food Security Mission in 312 districts in 17 states and aims to achieve an additional production of 20 million tonnes of foodgrains by the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan ending fiscal 2011-2012.