With Union Agriculture Minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar writing letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee expressing his frustration with the government taking decisions “against the interests” of farmers engaged in sugarcane and cotton cultivation, the PM and Mukherjee have called meetings next week to resolve issues raised by him.

While the PM has called a meeting on April 23, Mukherjee has called a meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) under his chairmanship on April 25.

Given that Pawar’s letter to him had raised issues regarding export of casein, cotton and sugar, the PM has called Mukherjee, Pawar, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma and Food Minister K V Thomas for a meeting on April 23.

On the other hand, the EGoM chaired by Mukherjee comprises Defence Minister A K Antony, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Science and Technology Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, Railways Minister Mukul Roy and Thomas, along with the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Pawar has written to Mukherjee complaining that the minutes of the previous EGoM, held on March 26, did not reflect the discussions regarding the modalities of expediting sugar exports. The minutes of the previous EGoM directed the Food Ministry to finalise the modalities of sugar exports with “equity and transparency” as the yardsticks. Thomas has taken these yardsticks as the continuation of sugar exports modality that was approved by Pawar in 2010 as the Food Minister.