India Faces Lean Winter

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30919, 27 November 1965, Page 15

India Faces Lean Winter

(N.Z P.A -Reuter—Copyright) NEW DELHI, Nov. 26.

India faces a lean winter, with a prospect of widespread rationing to begin soon.

Rationing of wheat, rice and sugar is due to start in DeE.i before December 8.

By January, the Food Minister, Mr C. Subramanian. proposes to extend rationing to all cities of more than one million population. By May, the rationing should have extended to cities of more than 100,000 people.

The ration will be about ten ounces of food grains daily and just over two pounds of sugar monthly. Manual workers may get extra. The Government has asked people to eat more vegeables. eggs and other foods in place of grain, but the prices of these alternatives are beyond the reach of the lowest income groups. Poor Harvest Rationing has been necessitated by a poor harvest this year, after failure of the monsoon rains in many parts of I India.

There is acute scarcity of food grains in north-western and western India, and the Government is proposing to start relief works in droughtstricken Rajasthan where five million people are threatened by famine. India last year produced a record harvest of 88 million tons of food grains, yet still needed to import another 6,500.000 tons. This year, the harvest is estimated to have dropped by three million tons.

To add to this India’s population has increased by 12 million during the year. India’s main source of sup-

ply continues to be the United States, which has sent 32 million tons of grain to this country over the last 10 years, in return for payments in rupees which are then lent to India for her development plans. Sense of Urgency Indians are meeting the food crisis with a new sense of urgency and resolve that stems in part from feelings of national confidence and

- unity arising out of the re--1 cent conflict with Pakistan. > Many Indians have obeyed , a call to “miss a meal a week” i to save food. t Hosts are f orbidden to serve 1 cereals to more than 25 guests at parties. And the Indian Government ; has launched a forced pro- > gramme to put more land t under cultivation, to try to i make India self-sufficient in 1 food within five years.