DCs asked to monitor rural job schemes Warned against harassment of farmers in procuring boro rice, disbursing fuel subsidy Mustafizur Rahman The government has ordered the deputy commissioners to make sure that farmers are not harassed or deprived of in the upcoming boro rice procurement drive and disbursement of diesel subsidies for irrigation.

Rising food prices across the world are generating a great deal of heat and dust. Some of that high-decibel debate about food versus fuel and end of an era when food prices were declining, has found its way into India as well.

4 killed at Haiti anti-poverty demo Agence France-Presse . Port-Au-Prince Four people were shot dead and some 20 injured Friday on the second day of demonstrations in Haiti against rising prices and poverty, a politician said.

Call to introduce rationing system DU Correspondent Progressive Students' Alliance, a combine of five left leaning student organisations, on Saturday demanded introduction of rationing system to avert possible famine in the country. At a rally held in front of the Central Library at Dhaka University, leaders of the alliance also demanded reduction in prices of essentials, including rice, pulses and edible oil. They said many people had been suffering from various diseases stemming from malnutrition caused by silent famine in the country.

UNP as a democratic party should prescribe solutions to arrest rising prices of essential commodities, said Deputy Finance and State Revenue Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya. Minister Siyambalapitiya was speaking at the opening of Lankaputhra Development Bank's Kandy branch. Prices of imported food items have doubled and the oil prices have been increased by 400 per cent. Though we conducted protest campaigns such as Pada Yathra, Jana Ghosha, etc, where we were in the Opposition, we never indulged in such acts as damaging the Kitchen utensils.

Food prices are on the rise and not only in India. The increase has been sharper still in in other Asian counties, such as Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Myanmar. The continent is paying for its neglect of agricultural research and irrigation. There has neen a dwindling of prime land and shrinkage of water supplies owing to industrialisation. The UN's Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific has stated that a boost in farm productivity is the only way out of the crisis. India urgently needs another Green Revolution.

The bumper potato harvest this year is ironically turning out to be bad news for farmers in Uttar Pradesh. With storage houses already full to capacity, the market is flooded with the produce, causing a steep fall in prices. Farmers in Kanpur, Etawah, Farukkhabad and others districts have been forced to hunt for storage houses in other districts. On Wednesday night, over a dozen people including two policemen were injured and several vehicles damaged during a protest by villagers angry over non-availability of space in a cold storage.

Accusing the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of having "miserably failed' to contain the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, fruits and vegetables, the Janata Dal (United) o

Rice stock position for the public distribution system in the State is comfortable.

Dhaka urges developed countries to help check food price hike United News of Bangladesh . New York The foreign adviser, Iftekhar Ahmed, has urged the surplus developed countries to do more to rein in the rising food price.