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Why should people die of hunger, asks PM

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI DEC. 5. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today told the Rajya Sabha that there were sufficient foodgrains in the country and the Centre was willing to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the strengthening of the public distribution system (PDS).

Responding to members' concern, Mr. Vajpayee said there were flaws in the PDS and wondered why people should die of hunger when the country had sufficient stock of foodgrains. However, he said, it was not true that all of them died of hunger.

Intervening during question hour, Mr. Vajpayee said the issue had been raised in Parliament on several occasions and noted that available foodgrains were not reaching the poor. ``There was something wrong with the distribution system.''

Several experiments had been gone through to strengthen the PDS.

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