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 While the CPI(M) is attacking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA government over inflation and the price rise, its own government in West Bengal has been a silent spectator, not using three basic strategies to check prices.

First, for the past six months, it had declined to give Food Corporation of India the subsidy it needs to carry out procurement operations for foodgrains.

Second, the government’s enforcement branch, supposed to check hoarding and black marketing, has no work and no orders either. The EB claims it lacks the backing of strong laws.

Third, a consultative committee of FCI, chaired by a CPI(M) member of Parliament, has not met for the past six months, the period during which prices have been going up.

Only this week, the Left Front government, reacting to pressure from the Centre to tone up foodgrain procurement or share the blame for the current spell of inflation, suddenly realised that the FCI needs help to carry out market operations.

Paresh Adhikary, the Food and Supplies Minister, told the Indian Express that the finance department has agreed to pay FCI the subsidy it needs to procure foodgrains from farmers. The decision was taken on Monday at a high-level meeting chaired by Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta.

For years, the Left Front government had been criticising FCI, claiming that the Central agency does not have the infrastructure. The state had even asked its agencies Benfed and Confed to run parallel procurement operations. But Benfed and Confed were equally badly placed on the infrastructure front and could not achieve much.

Last year, till March 31, 2007, FCI had managed to procure 2.95 lakh tonne of foodgrains without any help from the state and despite a levy imposed on its operations by the state food department. On the other hand, Benfed and Confed could manage to procure only 3.74 lakh tonne during the same period.

In the first 28 days of the current financial year, FCI has procured 2,585 tonne, more or less equal to what Benfed and Confed achieved together in the same period.

The minister said Monday’s meeting discussed several issues, including steps that could be taken to make FCI more active.

Meanwhile, the FCI consultative committee chaired by CPI(M) MP Hannan Mollah has not met in the past six months when market prices of rice and other grains was shooting up and the public distribution system’s flaws were revealed. The committee was set up on June 21, 2007.

Mollah himself thought it wasn’t a very important body. “It is nothing great. Sharad Pawar has made me the chairman, and we have met a couple of times since it was set up,” Mollah said.

But G.P. Pandey, FCI’s executive director for the eastern region, said the committee was supposed to meet at least once every quarter.

As for keeping an eye on prices in the open markets, Chanchal Kumar Dutta, the deputy commissioner of police who is in charge of the enforcement branch, seemed to take the official CPI(M) line to plead helplessness. “There are no tough laws to check hoarding or black-marketing. So we can do nothing about the present price rise,” Dutta said.

Last week, Biman Bose, the secretary of the CPI(M)’s state unit, had trotted out the exact excuse to absolve the state government of any blame.

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