ANANTAPUR: State president of Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham K. Ramakrishna and district secretary of Communist Party of India on Thursday alleged that the State Government had completely failed in controlling the soaring prices of essential commodities.

Holding the Minister for Agriculture and Civil Supplies N. Raghuveera Reddy partly responsible for the price rise, the CPI leaders urged Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy to take back the portfolio of Civil Supplies from the Minister.

His inefficiency as the Minister concerned had also added to the problem, they observed.

Most of the essential commodities had gone out of the reach of poor and lower middle class families due to unprecedented hike in the prices of essential commodities like pulses, chilli, tamarind, edible oils, vegetables and other food grains, they noted.

As a result, the poor and middle class families were suffering an additional burden of Rs. 1,000 to 1,500 per month, they said.

Protest

The State Government, however, was not responding to the situation .

It was shameful on part of the Government to cane and arrest the CPI activists and leaders who had participated in a protest all over the State against price hike and black marketing of essential commodities.

Instead of taking action against the hoarders, the Commercial Taxes Department was staying a mute spectator.

Further, they alleged that the MARKFED, which had planned to procure 30,000 tonnes of red gram with market intervention to keep the prices of pulses under control, had procured only 700 tonnes of red gram due to pressure from traders.

The CPI would chalk out an agitation programme on the price hike.

Expressing concern over the drastic fall in the extent of cultivable land in the name of development like allocation of land to industries, special economic zones and others in the recent years, the CPI leaders explained that it had come down by 1.05 lakh acres in Nalgonda, by 2 lakh acres in Medak and by 2.52 lakh acres in Ranga Reddy districts.

As a result, the situation was demanding import of food grains like wheat from other countries.

Besides, there were about 40-lakh forest and endowments surplus lands in the State and they should be distributed among the poor in six months time instead of three years as being planned by the Government.

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