Shillong, Jan. 7: The Centre has written to the Meghalaya government, along with other states, asking it to ensure smooth supply of food items in the state to contain the steep rise in prices.

The exercise is part of a nationwide initiative to bring down food prices all over the country.

Official sources said today that the Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had asked all the state governments, including Meghalaya, to ensure that the bottlenecks in the supply chain are removed at the earliest so that there is availability of food items.

Like major cities elsewhere in the country, Shillong is also facing a steep rise in food prices, which is affecting the common man.

As per the letter, during the past few weeks, food inflation had shown a rising trend and stood at 18.3 per cent for the week ending December 25. “Much of this inflation has been due to the significant increase in the prices of a few primary items like fruits and vegetables, milk, meat, poultry, eggs and fish,” Mukherjee said.

He also said that the inflation data that was released yesterday shows that three-fourth of food inflation is due to rising prices of vegetables, and nearly one-fourth is due to milk prices.

According to the letter, in the current financial year, the prices of cereals and pulses have declined sharply and continue to do so even in recent weeks when the trend in food inflation has reversed.

He urged the chief ministers to look into the supply management of food items, adding that there should be an initiative to check the widening the gap between the wholesale and retail prices.