New Delhi: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has convened an all-party meeting on July 25 to discuss ways to improve the Public Distribution System (PDS) and better utilise the Rs 36,000 crore food subsidy.

The all-party meeting would try to evolve a consensus on improving the working of PDS, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Sharad Yadav told reporters.

Yadav said the meeting would focus on how best to utilise the Rs 36,000 crore subsidy provided for the sector.

Asked how the Centre would fund the recently announced Rs 600 crore package for sugarcane growers, Yadav remained non committal, saying work was on to finalise modalities for the purpose.

He dismissed allegations that the announcement was a mere ploy to attract votes in the forthcoming elections in four states.

He said the matter had been debated twice in Parliament in the recent past and would provide the much- needed relief to cane growers.

On the issue of storage problems pertaining to food grains, he said the storage position was much better this year with stocks declining to around 40 million tonnes compared to 60 million tonnes a year ago and there was a lot of idle capacity in godowns.

PTI