The Hindu : National : Budget should be pro-people, says Brinda Karat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 24, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

Budget should be pro-people, says Brinda Karat

Staff Reporter

Revitalisation of PDS needed
Food subsidy should reach everyone

Tuticorin: Rajya Sabha and CPI (M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat said here on Saturday that the party wanted the last full budget of the United Progressive Alliance government to be utilised to do course correction on financial allocations. This would fulfil the assurances in the Common Minimum Programme (CMP).

Speaking to reporters, she said the Finance Minister should bring out a pro-people budget by addressing the hike in prices of essential commodities.

“To address the price rise, there is a need to revitalise the Public Distribution System (PDS), which has been weakened considerably following the introduction of ‘targeted distribution system’, through adoption of a universal PDS.”

The food subsidy should be raised in the budget to expand the procurement operations and for strengthening the PDS, she said.

Ms. Karat said faulty poverty estimates and complexities in the identification of Below Poverty Line (BPL) people had been depriving a large section of the poor from their right to food.

Pointing to a survey by the National Sample Survey Organisation, she said it was a matter of concern that about 70.5 per cent of the rural households in the country either did not have any ration card or been excluded from the purview of food subsidies. The food subsidy should reach everyone without any demarcation as BPL or Above Poverty Line.

‘Ban futures trading in food grains’

A comprehensive ban on ‘futures trading’ in food grains should be announced in the budget, since it pushed up the prices by allowing speculative capital into the commodity exchange market.

She said that instead of increasing the retail prices of petroleum products in tandem with the hike of international oil prices, the government should have restructured the indirect taxes on petroleum to reduce the burden on people.

Sethu project

Ms. Karat said the Centre should counter the false propaganda and double standards being adopted on the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project.

She said the CPI (M) would chalk out policy-based initiatives at the coming national conference in Coimbatore starting on March 29.

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

National