BANKING TRADE AND COMMERCE

STATE TRADING

State Trading and Fair Price Shops.—The history of State trad-ing dates back to 1942 when the British Government had imposed statutory rationing all over the country. The system of rationing was the direct consequence of the World War II which brought about conditions of acute scarcity and black marketing of all con-sumers goods. Under the policy of rationing the Government procured the rationed commodities from the producers on the basis of compulsory levy, and the distribution was done through approved shops. The sale, purchase and transport of the rationed commodities by private parties was strictly prohibited. The ex-tent of controls was gradually relaxed after the dawn of Indepen-dence, and the controls were withdrawn in 1954.

With the rise in the prices of foodgrains and sugar, a multitude of imbalances were witnessed in the market. The prices of rice, wheat, jowar and other foodgrains registered a steep rise during 1959, 1962, 1963, and 1964. The Government, therefore, decided to establish more fair price shops. The general price situation took an adverse turn since the Pakistani aggression in September 1965.

The worsening food situation compelled the Government to introduce informal rationing and monopoly procurement of rice and jowar through Government agencies. Under the procure-ment system, the Government started purchasing these food-grains from the producers at scheduled prices.

The system of monopoly procurement of jowar was implement-ed in the district in 1964-65 under the Maharashtra Jowar (Res-triction on Purchase, Sale and Control on Movement) Order of 1964. During 1965-66 the Government issued a consolidated statutory order for procurement of jowar, rice and paddy, viz., Maharashtra Scheduled Foodgrains (Stock Declaration and Pro-curement, Disposal, Acquisition, Transport and Price Control) Order of 1965. Similar control orders were issued by Govern-ment for the subsequent years. The procurement policy during the subsequent years remained almost the same as that for 1965-66 with changes to the effect that the levy tables were made applicable for assessing the amount of levy.

Government has prohibited sale and purchase of jowar, rice and paddy in this district. The transport and movement of these cereals is prohibited. The agriculturists are, however, allowed to sell small quantities of these foodgrains to bona fide consumers.

The details of quantity and value of jowar procured in the district from 1965-66 to 1968-69 are given below:—

There are 21 purchasing centres opened for the purchase of jowar and paddy under the monopoly procurement system. Besides, there are 19 godown centres for disbursement of these foodgrains to the fair price shops, and 8 godowns for disbursement in the inaccessible areas in the monsoon period.

The foodgrains procured by the Government are distributed through fair price shops. Besides the scheduled grains, wheat and sugar also are distributed through these shops. The fair price shops are managed by co-operative societies, village pan-chayats, local bodies as well as by authorised private shop-keepers. Co-operative societies and village panchayats are given preference over private shop-keepers for running fair price shops. They are controlled and inspected by the District Supply Officer or the Tahsildar. The consumers are required to obtain household ration cards.

There are 816 fair price shops in the district which are managed as under: —

The quantity and value of the goods disbursed through the fair price shops in the district are given below:—

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