The government today said it will not allow prices of essential food items to increase due to the impact of possible deficient monsoon this year. Speaking to media in New Delhi today, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said, state governments have also been asked to take measures to prevent spike in prices of essential commodities. Stating that the government is keeping close watch on food prices, Mr Singh said, measures are also being taken to boost supply of pulses and other items, in which there have been price increase recently. He informed that more steps to check food inflation will be discussed in detail next week in a meeting of state food ministers which will be chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The Minister said the government has a contingency plan for 600-odd districts to tackle deficient rains in July and August. He said last year Monsoon was short by 12 per cent, but the production was down by only 2 per cent.Mr Singh said the recent hike in Minimum support price and special bonus has resulted into increase of cropped area under Pulses and Oil seeds. He said the area cultivated under the pulses has gone up by 160 per cent, where as oil seeds have seen a mammoth growth of 385 per cent.There has been more than 60 per cent increase in retail prices of pulses in last one year. Pulses prices have already breached Rs 100 per kilo in most markets. Similarly, onion prices are inching up in the wake of short supply.At present, farmers are undertaking sowing of kharif crops and monsoon rains are crucial as more than half of the cultivable land in the country is rainfed.The Met Department has projected 8 and 10 per cent deficient rains in July and August respectively. In June, rains were 28 per cent above normal.