The meeting of the group of ministers chaired by prime minister Atal Bihari Vajyapee to review the prices situation also decided to step up anti-hoarding measures. The situation will be monitored on a regular basis by the cabinet committee on prices and a committee to be headed by the cabinet secretary, which will meet every week.

The group of ministries comprising the finance minister, commerce minister, industry minister, food and agriculture minister, and deputy chairman of the Planning Commission will also meet from time to time under the prime minister's chairmanship to take stock of the price situation. Home and defence ministers are also part of the group. Soon after the group's first meeting, finance minister Yashwant Sinha toldnewsmen that the 10 per cent import duty on pulses would be lifted besides putting the item under open general licence.

Similarly, the 4 per cent special additional duty imposed this year on inputs like palmolein, used as an input in manufacturing vanaspati, stands abolished, he said.

Sinha also said that the prime minister would write to state chief ministers asking them to step up dehoarding measures.

Meanwhile, cabinet secretary Prabhat Kumar has convened a meeting of state chief secretaries on November 7 to review the action taken on this score, he added.

Referring to potato shortage in the capital, Sinha said the prime minister had asked Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh to supply surplus quantities to the state's cold-storage chain. Singh, he added, will soon hold a meeting to ensure increased potato supplies to Delhi.

Regarding onions, Sinha said the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed) was asked to procure more quantities of onions from other states wherethere was surplus.

Minister of state for agriculture Som Pal will contact state governments with surplus onions to facilitate increased supply in states facing shortage. During 1997-98, he said, onion production was only 36 lakh tonnes, against 42.7 lakh tonnes the previous year. When asked from where government would get onions, Sinha said it was trying to locate sources. "We have identified countries like Belarus and Kazhakstan besides Iran for onion imports," he added.

On edible oil supply, the minister said there was adequate stock of palmolein with the government, and the shortage was mainly in mustard oil. While there was no increase in sunflower prices, groundnut rates had started declining with the start of the season, he said.

Shortfall in pulses production was around two million tonnes as the country's output had remained stagnant around 13-14 million tonnes for the last 30 years, Sinha said.

As many countries did not produce pulses, import was difficult. Yet the government had contractedfor importing 8-9 lakh tonnes of pulses. "Price rise in pulses is confined mainly to arhar dal, which has increased by 16.5 per cent. But it is grown exclusively in the region," he said, adding government will approach Myanmar for pulses import.

Moong and masoor dals could be used as substitutes for arhar dal, and their import was being sought from China, Turkey and Hungary, he said.

Meanwhile, in Bangalore, the prime minister said the government had decided to import commodities in short supply as part of a series of measures to contain spiralling prices and ensure adequate supply.

He told reporters on arrival in the city on a two-day visit that the centre had decided to initiate many steps to check price rise.

Vajpayee disagreed that the country was witnessing "an alarming rise in prices of essential commodities" after the BJP government came to power, and said they had risen during earlier regimes too.

Vajpayee, who attributed the short supply and rise in prices of essential commodities tounseasonal rains and floods, said: "The magnitude of floods and crop loss witnessed in the country this year was never seen in the past."