The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Prohibit futures trading in essential commodities: Yechury

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Prohibit futures trading in essential commodities: Yechury

Staff Reporter

Faults Central government for pursuing wrong measures

— Photo: M. Balaji

Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury taking a look at a common effluent treatment and recycling plant in Tirupur on Friday.

TIRUPUR: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has urged the Centre to prohibit futures trading in all essential commodities to contain inflation and steep price rise.

Addressing a gathering of exporters and captains of dyeing and textile mills, organised by the Tirupur Exporters’ Association here on Friday, the party’s Polit Bureau member, Sitaram Yechury, faulted the Centre for pursing wrong measures. He said these measures, instead of checking price rise, had led to the ruin of the manufacturing sector.

He criticised the government for asking the Reserve Bank of India not to intervene in the wake of strengthening of the rupee.

“A wrong diagnosis of the problem by the Centre and, therefore, wrong prescription. By allowing the rupee to appreciate, the Centre has not only slowed down the economy but is also ruining the manufacturing sector,” he said.

Quoting data from industry bodies, Mr. Yechury said the rupee appreciated around 13 per cent in a year against the U.S. dollar, leading to the fall of overall revenue by 8.5 per cent in the textile industry.

Profit margin in the leather industry fell by 10 per cent. This had rendered thousands jobless. He blamed the government for allowing futures trading and forward trading in essential commodities.

He said inflation was taking place primarily because of rise in the essential commodities.

Advocating for a shift in economic policies, Mr. Yechury asked the industry bodies to put pressure on the government for a corrective decision.

“Work together”

He called upon the entrepreneurs to work together and arrive at alternative set of policies to protect the industries.

He said the CPI (M) would take up these issues, not in the interest of an industrialist or an industry, but for the welfare of the country.

Mr. Yechury, who visited a common effluent recycling plant here, said efforts to achieve zero discharge by the dyeing and bleaching units must be supported by the Central and State governments.

Given the high level of investments in these plants, he wanted the governments to extend larger subsidy, which could be replicated elsewhere in the country. Later addressing a party meeting, he said changes in policies could be brought about only by the Left to build a better and new India. He cautioned people against communal forces saying that they were trying to gain narrow electoral victory by diverting attention from real issues.

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