With his government under attack over rising prices, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday bluntly told the states that they should use all instruments in their command to make available essential commodities to the poor and command man at reasonable prices.
Addressing first annual conference of State chief secretaries in New Delhi, he, however, maintained it must be recognised that in a globalised world it will never be possible to insulate the country from the pulls and pressures of international demand and supply.
Singh also utilised the occasion of the two-day conference to ask the bureaucracy to tone up its functioning and to stress the need for tackling terrorism, insurgency and extremism with a firm but effective and sensitive hand.
"The importance of making the public distribution system strong and efficient for making essential commodities available to the poor and to the comman man at reasonable prices cannot be over emphasised," he said.
"There are many instruments at your command and it is expected that you should not be found wanting in their judicious use. On behalf of the Central government, I would take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to assist States in every way we can in all these and other areas," he added.
He asked state governments to devise strategies to bolster food production and tackle shortages of essential supplies.
Singh said there was great scope for improvement in the productivity of major crops and hoped to see greater efforts in achieving it.
"It will never be possible to insulate ourselves from the pulls and pressures of international demand and supply.
The state governments must forge appropriate strategies to bolster food production and tackle shortages of essential supplies," he said.
He said the rising expectations of the people made them impatient with the speed at which results were delivered by the government.
"Governance today has become extremely complex. . . There is clamour for accountability from all quarters - the legislature, the judiciary and the media," he said.
Singh said the experience in the past two years has brought to the fore the importance of food security and the need for containing prices.
"For some time past, there was a false sense of security that availability of food has ceased to be a concern.
Similarly, many felt that we have been able to control prices," he said, adding growing population and higher levels of living necessitated augmentation of food supplies.
Pointing out that the country's agricultural productivity still ranked far below the best in the world, he asked state governments to focus their energy on it since there was a great scope for raising the output of major crops.
Singh said the importance of making public distribution system strong and efficient to ensure availability of essential commodities to the poor and the common man at reasonable prices cannot be over emphasised.
Observing that inclusive growth was the centre-piece of government's development process, he referred to schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Programme, National Rural Health Mission, Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, new 15-Point Programme for Welfare of Minorities and Bharat Nirman.
He said the administrators must ensure that these programmes were implemented in 'the spirit in which they have been conceived, that road blocks are cleared rapidly, that leakages are plugged and the people get what is intended for them in the quickest and the most efficient manner'.
The prime minister suggested that the states must place some of their 'best and committed' officers as agricultural production commissioners given the importance of farming in the country.
"I notice that in recent years, this job has lost its attractiveness and not the best persons are being appointed to man the position of agricultural production commissioners in the states", he regretted.
