The Hindu : National : Left parties, BJP stage walkout

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Wednesday, Jul 26, 2006

National

National

Left parties, BJP stage walkout

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Dissatisfied over the reply of Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on the steps to check rise in the prices of essential commodities, members of the Left parties and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha.

While Sushma Swaraj (BJP) said that the Minister's reply did not spell out any steps that would bring relief to the common man and consumers, Brinda Karat (CPI-M) said that her party was "totally opposed" to his approach as he failed to give any categorical assurance on futures trading and keeping essential commodities out of it.

Replying to a short duration discussion on the situation arising out of the rise in the prices of essential commodities during the last one year, Mr. Chidambaram said the Government was fully aware of the situation and has taken a number of steps on fiscal, monetary and supply sides to control price rise.

Outlining the steps taken by the government, Mr. Chidambaram said that 35 lakh tonnes of wheat was being imported and it has been brought under open general licence, sale of 42 lakh tonnes of sugar during April-June quarter has been cleared and customs duty on pulses and import of sugar has been brought to zero level. While fiscal steps to reduce import duty have been taken, further steps on the monetary side were being taken by the Reserve Bank of India, he said adding that the government was monitoring the supply situation to correct any supply-demand mismatch.

Defends imports

Defending the decision to go for import of essential commodities, Mr. Chidambaram said there was "nothing wrong in imports" as it would help increase the total availability of the commodities to the people. Sharing concerns of the members, he appealed to all the Chief Ministers to make use of control orders to crack down on suspected cases of hoarding, price manipulation and black-marketing. "The Government will support such move," he said.

Seeking clarifications from the Finance Minister, Brinda Karat expressed "deep disappointment" over his reply, saying his language is totally different in Delhi and Tamil Nadu where the accessible prices' plank won the elections for the DMK-led combine.

"The administration has retreated from food security. Is the Finance Minister rescinding the order of the NDA government that brought down the essential commodites from 79 to 15? He has said nothing on how much stock a dealer can hold. Are you ready to remove essential commodities from futures trading? This government has only one agenda: to destroy the Public Distribution System (PDS) and that is why wheat allocation under PDS has been brought down from 23 lakh tonnes to just 8 lakh tonnes," Ms. Karat said.

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