Karnataka - Gulbarga   

‘Price rise caused by fall in grain production’

GULBARGA: Union Minister for Labour and Employment M. Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday attributed the spiralling prices of essential commodities, particularly foodgrains, to the fall in foodgrain production in the past two years.

Speaking to presspersons here, Mr. Kharge said the Union Government had accorded priority to bringing down the prices of essential commodities and had initiated several measures in this regard. He said there was no use in blaming anyone for the increase in prices of essential commodities as it was the duty of both the State and Union governments to join hands to help the common man.

Mr. Kharge said the increase in the price of sugar in the open market was mainly due to the fall in production of sugarcane and the reduction in area of sugarcane cultivation in the past few years. In the case of pulses and oilseeds, the prices of which had also shot up, unfavourable weather conditions and failure of rains in pulse and oilseeds growing areas this year had resulted in a production shortfall.

This had led to the increase in prices of pulses.

He said State governments had a greater role to play in the prevention of artificial scarcity of foodgrains. They should effectively check hoarding and black-marketeering of essential commodities by cracking down on violators.

To a question, Mr. Kharge said the Union Government would not hesitate to import foodgrains to meet the demand. “We will ensure that there is no shortage of foodgrains in the country,” he added.

To another question, the Minister said the BJP Government was not attaching importance to the development of infrastructure, power, agriculture, irrigation, and communication. The allocation in successive budgets by this Government to these sectors had come down, resulting in a fall in overall growth rate, he said.

Mr. Kharge said that unless the State Government provided more funds for additional generation of power, the State’s efforts to invite new industrial investments would not succeed. “No industrialist will invest his money in a State facing shortage of power,” he said.

Similarly, if more funds were not provided to the irrigation sector, the economic growth of the State would suffer. The allocation to the sector had come down drastically and even the physical targets for irrigation had been downsized after the BJP came to power, Mr. Kharge alleged.

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