I n the view of the prime minister’s economic advisory council, according to the note on ‘Economic Reforms: A Medium Term Perspective’ prepared for the council’s meeting this week, “the present [foodgrain] procurement policy should be drastically revised so as to limit government purchases only for preventing sharp fall in prices (i e to support prices) instead of government buying all that is offered at predetermined ‘fair’ prices”. Less than a fortnight before the council’s meeting, the chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana had rushed to Delhi to meet the prime minister and seek an assurance from him that there would be no cut in the price at which the Food Corporation of India (FCI) would buy wheat in the forthcoming rabi marketing season. On his return from the capital, the Punjab chief minister told newspersons in Chandigarh that he and his Haryana counterpart had indeed got the assurance they had sought from the prime minister.
