Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has said, the government is trying to dispose a buffer stock of 18 lakh tonnes of pulses and asked entities, including cooperative NCCF, to do the needful. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function in New Delhi on Wednesday, Mr Paswan said, the government will procure pulses in the current year as well if the rates fall below the minimum support price, MSP level.<br/><br/>For the first time, the government had last year decided to create a buffer stock of pulses to ensure better prices to farmers and at the same time use the stock to augment local supply in times of price rise. About 20 lakh tonnes of buffer were created through local procurement and imports.<br/><br/>To ensure better prices for farmers, the government has recently lifted ban on export of tur, urad and and moong dals.<br/><br/>The country had procured a record 22.95 million tonnes of pulses in 2016-17 crop year due to good monsoon.<br/><br/>The Minister also clarified that the country has no shortage of sugar and the government will ensure retail prices of the sweetener remain stable during the ongoing festive season. <br/><br/>He said, there is no supply crunch in the country and the government has allowed southern mills to import 3 lakh tonnes of raw sugar at a concessional duty of 25 per cent to augment domestic supplies during the festival season. He said, the country has a sugar stock of 27.7 million tonnes, which includes domestic production of 20.2 million tonnes in 2016-17 and 5,00,000 tonnes of imports and 7 million tonnes of last year's stock.<br/><br/>Earlier, speaking on the occasion of 49th Annual General Body Meeting of National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India Limited (NCCF), Mr Paswan noted with satisfaction the performance of Apex Body of Consumer Cooperatives in India, which has registered a turnover of about 800 crore rupees with a profit of 7.70 crore rupees. <br/><br/>The Minister further lauded the role of NCCF in protecting the interest of consumers by making available a variety of consumer goods at most competitive prices to the consumers. Efforts made by NCCF in procurement of paddy and wheat in the states of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and Tamil Nadu were appreciated by the Minister. <br/><br/>The Union Minister also appreciated the interventions made by NCCF in making available pulses and tomatoes at the subsidised prices to the consumers in Delhi which helped in stabilizing the prices. He said, in order to keep the retail prices of essential commodities at reasonable level at all times, it is important that agencies like Mother Dairy and Kendriya Bhandar, NCCF should also have a sufficient number of retail outlets in Delhi.<br/><br/>He said, nation is celebrating the 3rd anniversary of Swachh Bharat Mission this year and a special cleanliness drive has been launched from 15th September to 2nd October on pan India basis under the tag line Swachhta Hi Seva. He said, NCCF has also been consistently making efforts to keep its offices and surroundings clean.