The Hindu : Front Page : Karat: Centre did not heed counsel on prices

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 24, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Karat: Centre did not heed counsel on prices

Special Correspondent

COIMBATORE: Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat on Wednesday said the United Progress Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre had not heeded the counsel of the party on curbing price rise and also on strengthening the public distribution system.

Launching the Coimbatore edition of party organ Theekathir here, Mr. Karat said: "The UPA Government is unwilling to understand the problem and take necessary measures to check the price rise. Therefore, it is necessary to form a strong movement to force the Government to curb the price rise."

Mr. Karat rejected Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's explanation that the prices had increased because the Government was spending huge sums on welfare schemes.

"We want the Government to spend substantially on welfare schemes. But, the increase is because of the inability to check the rise in the price of petrol and lack of action against the hoarding of essential commodities."

The Government and the Congress leadership should realise that if this continued, they would lose the faith of the people. They should learn from the defeat in the elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

"They should change the course of their policies. The Left will not allow the continuation of these policies if they are not to the benefit of the people."

Flaying foreign direct investment in the retail sector, he said the Government should regulate the activities of big corporate establishments getting into this field.

Mr. Karat said loss-making public sector units in Kerala were making a turnaround under the CPI (M) regime.

He said it was not possible to have a two-party political system in the country. Referring to a recent comment by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in support of the system, he said given the diversity in the country only a multi-party system would work.

He congratulated Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi for announcing that the Chennai airport would be modernised by the Airports Authority of India.

State secretary N. Varadarajan said the May 9 attack on the office of Dinakaran in Madurai was unacceptable. Democracy would be affected by such incidents, he said.

Appreciating Mr. Karunanidhi for ordering a Central Bureau of Investigation probe, he called for an impartial inquiry.

Communist Party of India's national executive committee member R. Nallakkannu criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party for opposing the Sethusamudram project on the grounds that it would remove Ram Sethu.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page