STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Former Minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla on Sunday attacked BJP government for failing to control the phenomenal rise in prices of essential commodities and said its policies and programmes were putting financial burden on the marginalised section of the society.
He blamed government for the phenomenal rise in wholesale and retail prices of food grains, vegetables and fruits.
“Sky-rocketing prices of onion, tomato and potato were direct result of BJP government`s failure to control the prices of essential commodities in the country,” he said.
Demanding a white paper on the rising prices of essential commodities in the country, he accused the NDA Government of failing to check it and said the increase was the steepest in the recent times.
“The white paper should also list the reasons for the price rise and why the government had failed to control it,” he said.
“The government had not even taken remedial steps to check the prices,” he said.
During Congress tenure, the prices of essential commodities and inflation were completely under control prices have witnessed sleep increase in the present government’s tenure, he said.
This was stated by former Minister on Sunday while interacting with aggrieved people of Bahu Fort in Gorkha Nagar to listen to their grievances.
Prominent among those present on the occasion include Block President Jatinder Singh Chib, Corporator Shal Lal Basan, GS Sodhi, Latish Sharma, Dewan Chand, Gagan Bral, Rohit Bhagat, Gopal Sharma, Mulakh Raj, Leela Jamwal, Om Parkash, Mohan Lal, Dev Raj Rahul Salotra, Naresh Sharma, Raj Kour, Rajeev Kashab, Jai Lal, Sohal Lal, Asha Devi beside others.
He accused the Centre of “passing on the buck” of taming the price spiral to states and said that the NDA’s attempts to wash its hands on inflation were an “act of desperation”. He said that “all effective policy measures” to contain soaring inflation could be taken only by the Central government and it is “deplorable” to shift the burden onto the states.
Former Minister argued that all effective measures like fiscal and import and export policy, giving more teeth to the Essential Commodities Act, regulation of forward and futures trading, crackdown against cartalisation and duty restructuring rest with the Centre.
“Management of inflation is the primary duty of the Central Government in which it has failed. Now passing the buck on the states is an act of desperation and hence deplorable,” he said.
He said that the common man would make the BJP pay a heavy price for the government’s “failure” to contain the inflation. He also accused the government of turning an “economy of surplus into an economy of shortage” and said that the Centre should have anticipated the global rise in prices of commodities.