New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered both hope and despair to his countrymen on Saturday when he first promised sops to farmers and then warned that price rise is unavoidable in the current economic situation.
Dr Singh said his government will soon come out with some measures to improve the conditions of the farmers as part of his government's efforts to reduce poverty to single digit within a decade.
"We plan to take further steps in the coming weeks to order to improve the condition of farmers," the PM said in his address to the day-long session of All India Congress Committee on Saturday.
"The 11th Plan aims to reduce poverty rate from 28 per cent to 18 per cent. Currently, the country has 28 crore people living below poverty line," he said.
At the same time, Dr Singh, however, expressed his inability to control the high prices of the essential commodities. Sharing the concern of his partymen over price rise, the Prime Minister said his government has little control on global factors, including the sharp increase in crude prices.
"...we must keep in mind that global prices of basic food commodities have seen a rapid rise for a variety of factors. We do not have any control on these factors," he said. The wholesale price index, he said, was the lowest in the last 20 years.
The PM, however, assured that his government would continue efforts to ensure that essential food items are available to the poor at reasonable prices.
The PM expressed satisfaction that after a long gap the country has achieved an average agriculture growth rate of four per cent in the last three years. It will be the government's endeavour to maintain this growth rate in future, he said.
Singh said the overall economic growth has averaged nine per cent per annum in the last three years and "I am confident that if we continue to keep the nation on this growth path, it will be possible to reduce poverty to single digit figure within the next decade."
(With PTI inputs)
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