Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan will be interacting with students and farmers in Anantapur district on Thursday, July 14, 2011.
He will be addressing a meeting of students at Arts College in Anantapur in the forenoon and farmers at Rayadurg in the afternoon.
The Lok Satta Party today demanded that the Government of India canalize rice exports through State agencies like the FCI, STC, MMTC and PEC and share the profits with farmers by way of bonus or in other forms. In the alternative, the Government should impose a cess on rice exports by the private sector and pass it on to farmers.
Mr. D. V. V. S. Varma and Mr. P. Bhaskara Rao, Working President and Secretary of the Lok Satta Party, said the Government of India decision to permit export of a meager one million tons of rice long after most farmers had marketed their produce would benefit only traders.
The Lok Satta leaders pointed out that farmers suffered because of ad hoc and fitful decisions on food grain exports. The Union Government should allow export of food grains, after ensuring national food security.
Rice exports would neither endanger food security nor trigger food inflation, said the Lok Satta leaders. As of today, the Food Corporation of India has 65 million tons of food grains, almost double the strategic and buffer stock requirement, not to talk of stocks with farmers and traders. It is the rise in prices of fruits and vegetables, eggs and meat, and dairy products which is contributing to food inflation, and not rise in prices of food grains. Food grains account for just one percent of inflation.
Mr. Varma and Mr. Bhaskara Rao said that warehouses in India are overflowing with food grains since the country has produced 246 million tons this year against the annual consumption of 180 million tons. The Government should encourage export of surplus food grains to safeguard farmers’ interests and earn foreign exchange. Considering that a small country like Thailand exports 10 million tons of rice, the Government of India’s decision to permit export of a million tons is not a big deal, they added.
The Lok Satta leaders said that the Government of India decision followed sustained efforts by Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, other political parties and farmers’ organizations transcending their political differences. A permanent solution to the agrarian crisis lies in liberating it from the license-permit-control raj, they added.
Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan today wanted the Government, industry and NGOs to address the problem of growing unemployment on the one hand and the scarcity of skilled personnel on the other. The country has to provide livelihood opportunities to 1.5 crore to 2 crore youth every year.
Talking to media at a career expo organized by the Student Islamic Organization of India, he said that about 60 lakh of youth in Andhra Pradesh would have to be provided employment avenues in the next five years. He wanted the Government and voluntary organizations to impart training and skills to the youth so that they could meet the industry’s growing demand for skilled personnel.
He recalled that Lok Satta activists in Kukatpally constituency, which he represents in the Assembly, had enabled 1500 youth to find employment opportunities in the last six months by organizing training and providing counseling.
He congratulated SIO on its initiative to guide the minority youth on livelihood skills and employment avenues, and said the Government has to extend its support to such organizations.