1 Uncorrected/ Not for publication- 08.12.2009 SSS-AKG/11.00/1A ...

200Uncorrected/ Not for publication- 08.12.2009onions; this is a burning issue in every season. How to solve it? Theonly solution is warehouses. Whenever there are good monsoons and abumper crop, you must put warehouses to use. There is theWarehouses Corporation and there are cold storage facilities, but theyare not sufficient. The Ministry must take more aggressive steps andencourage the private enterprises to come forward. If you have coldstorages and warehouses, whenever there is more production of fruitsand vegetables in a particular area, you may store them and use themagain. Also, wherever in some area there is a surplus of foodgrains andvegetables, Government must take the initiative to transport them toplaces where they can be stored. The system is not well-coordinated.Now, the Government must take active part in, (1) coordination oftransportation of vegetables, fruits and foodgrains from surplus areas tothe deficit areas within the State and between States in a very scientificmanner; and (2) wherever more crops are produced, particularly in areaswhere the monsoons have been good, they should provide for coldstorage by giving them more loans and encouraging public-privatepartnership, and see that the vegetables and food items are stored andthen given out when there is a shortage of food. Then, there aremonsoons and floods; this is a continuous process in the country. Eventhough this cannot be solved immediately, there should be somesolution, that is, they must concentrate on improving the irrigationsystem at the national level. Now, just as we are giving top priority topower, construction of roads, the next priority should be irrigation. If wegive priority to irrigation, whenever there are floods, water will not flowout to the sea; it would be actually stored to be used again for