Meanwhile, the Government decision to import at such high prices is likely to attract severe criticism from political parties and farmers’ organisations alike. However, the Government justified the decision as a necessary action to maintain sufficient buffer stock in the country. Pawar had earlier indicated that the Government plans to import about 5 million tonnes of wheat this year to build its buffer stock despite the fact that there is no scarcity of the grain.

Official sources in the Food Ministry pointed out that the imports have been necessitated by the fact that the wheat stocks in the country stood at 129 lakh tonnes as against the norm of about 171 lakh tonnes as on July 1 every year.

The current import order of 7.9 lakh tons will be in addition to an earlier wheat import order of 5.11 lakh tonnes two months ago when the Government had to pay about $325 per tonne.