Sonia

New Delhi, July 4: A three-point agenda to address bread-and-butter issues is expected to be on the table Sonia Gandhi will set tomorrow at her home for chief ministers of 12 Congress-ruled states.

The meeting, convened by the Congress president as part of efforts to refurbish the party’s aam admi image, will focus on ways to strengthen the public distribution system, deal “tactfully” with hoarders and ensure better procurement prices to farmers.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, finance minister P. Chidambaram, defence minister Pranab Mukherjee and minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh have also been invited to the meeting.

The session is expected to yield an “action plan” on price control, which the Congress chief ministers will have to implement in a “time-bound” manner.

Alarmed by the perception that a government headed by an economist like Singh had “failed” to rein in prices, Sonia apparently decided to monitor the situation herself.

She called party general secretaries to a meeting this morning to pick their brains. It is believed that over the past few weeks, she had been briefed by ministers, officials and Congress functionaries. Ramesh was asked to brief the general secretaries specifically on anti-hoarding laws.

Sources said he spoke of how the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act were diluted by the NDA government to “help” the BJP’s trader constituencies ahead of the 2003 Assembly elections.

The dilutions did away with the bar on the quantum of food commodities retailers could stock. Second, the NDA lifted curbs on inter-state movements of foodgrain. The Congress feels that the measures encouraged hoarding and speculative purchases.

The views of the chief ministers on whether the curbs should be restored will be sought. But the party is averse to using “draconian” measures against traders.