However, it did not cut down the price of wheat offered to the open market from the central pool currently at Rs 6.90 a kg in FCI north zone, Rs 7.47 a kg for south zone, Rs 7.25 for west zone and Rs 7.48 for east zone.

"Under the liberalised scheme, FCI has been authorised to release wheat to roller flour mills, traders and consumer on demand subject to the condition that the minimum stock to be lifted is 10 tonnes," an official release said.

Until now, only roller flour millers were allowed to directly buy wheat from FCI from a quota of 10 lakh tonnes allotted by the Food Ministry.

The decision to liberalise open market sale of wheat was taken at a meeting of senior Food Ministry officials and FCI chaired by food secretary M S Asthana here today, the release said.

The Unioncabinet had on Saturday directed FCI to release additional stocks of wheat and rice in view of the marginal rise in their prices.

Government also directed FCI to enhance the open market quota of wheat to 40 lakh tonnes including 10 lakh tonnes allocated exclusively for the millers.

A total of 6.64 lakh tonnes wheat had been lifted from the open market quota since November 1998 and government had asked FCI to fill the gap left by the offtake, official sources said.