Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 25: Former minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla today attacked BJP Government for failing to control the rise in prices of essential commodities and said its policies and programmes were putting financial burden on the marginalised section of the society. He blamed Government for the phenomenal rise in wholesale and retail prices of food grains, vegetables and fruits.
“Sky-rocketing prices of onion, tomato and potato were direct result of BJP Government`s failure to control the prices of essential commodities in the country,” Bhalla said while interacting with people of Gorkha Nagar in Bahu Fort area today.
Demanding a white paper on the rising prices of essential commodities in the country, he accused the NDA Government of failing to check it and said the increase was the steepest in the recent times. “The white paper should also list the reasons for the price rise and why the Government had failed to control it,” Bhalla said.
“The Government had not even taken remedial steps to check the prices. During Congress tenure, the prices of essential commodities and inflation were completely under control prices have witnessed sleep increase in the present Government’s tenure,” he said.
He accused the Centre of “passing on the buck” of taming the price spiral to states and said that the NDA’s attempts to wash its hands on inflation were an “act of desperation”. He said that “all effective policy measures” to contain soaring inflation could be taken only by the Central Government and it is “deplorable” to shift the burden onto the states.
Former Minister argued that all effective measures like fiscal and import and export policy, giving more teeth to the Essential Commodities Act, regulation of forward and futures trading, crackdown against cartalisation and duty restructuring rest with the Centre.
“Management of inflation is the primary duty of the Central Govt in which it has failed. Now passing the buck on the states is an act of desperation and hence deplorable,” he said.
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