The consequences are dire as essential medical treatments, including dialysis, and medicines for cancer and anti-AIDS drugs remain out of reach for those in desperate need.
The term of the committee that the Manmohan Singh government has set up to study the impact of futures trading in agricultural commodities on price rise is being extended.
The farmers' union had been camping at the Dalit Prerna Sthal since December 2, demanding withdrawal of the three new farm laws, legalisation of minimum support price (MSP) for crops and implementation of the recommendation of Swaminathan Committee's report.
Prices of essential commodities, including foodgrains, have surged 8-10 per cent in just three days, because of deficient rains and on concerns that the farm output this kharif season would be hit badly.
As no untoward incident was reported, the curfew, imposed on January 31 following violence in the town, was relaxed for two hours on Friday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party will launch a one-day jail bharo agitation on Friday across the country during which party leaders and workers will court arrest to protest against the hike in prices of essential commodities and petrol products.
The government will amend the six-and-a-half-decade old Essential Commodities Act to deregulate food items, including cereals, edible oil, oilseeds, pulses, onion and potato, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday. The amendment, besides deregulating production and sale of food products, will provide for no stock limit to be imposed on any produce.
The Congress vice president had put out a tweet on Tuesday carrying erroneous percentages to depict a rise in the prices of essential commodities in a graphic and asked the prime minister whether his government was 'for the rich'.
The interbank foreign exchange, call money as well as major essential commodities markets like sugar, edible oils, cotton, metals and bullion will remain officially closed on Wednesday on the occasion of Gudi Padwa.
"Rahul Gandhi along with opposition leaders met President and submitted the memorandum to resolve farmers' issue. But there was no action from the President and the government. Rahul Gandhi will lead demonstration tomorrow at 10:45 am from Vijay Chowk to Rashtrapati Bhavan with Congress MPs," Suresh said.
While prices of essential commodities have touched astronomical figures, water supply in the city has also been affected.
Trade between India and Bangladesh via land ports came to a standstill on Sunday as there was no movement of cargo trucks to and fro due to the ongoing student protests in the neighbouring country, officials said. The Bangladeshi side of the Petrapole landport remained non-functional, they said. Nearly one-third of land-based trade between India and Bangladesh takes place through Petrapole.
As a result of demand due to upcoming festivals, inflation has taken several essentials like spices, edible oil and milk out of the common man's reach, Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said.
The retail prices of essential food items have fallen by up to 11 per cent in Mumbai and Delhi in the first fortnight of April, much to the relief of millions in these metros who had to shell out 40 per cent more in the last one year.The rates have come down within two weeks of government's price control measures, reversing the trend of spiralling prices.
"Strict action will be taken as per the law," Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said in Ambala, responding to a question about the incident.
Top Left leaders Prakash Karat (Communist Party of India-Marxist), A B Bardhan (Communist Party of India), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc) and Abani Roy (Revolutionary Socialist Party), led the demonstration near Parliament House.
Admitting that inflation posed a serious threat to the growth momentum affecting the poor and vulnerable sections, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday favoured waiving mandi, octroi and local taxes, which impede the smooth movement of essential commodities.
Speaking to mediapersons in Lucknow, he said, "There is no mechanism with the central government to curb the rising price of vegetables including onion; that can be done by the state governments."
The Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday termed as misleading the announcement of implementation of food security scheme by the city government and said it will meet the same fate as other schemes like Rajiv Ratna Awas yojna, Annashri yojna and Antyodaya yojna.
The state of Bihar will now monitor the public distribution system (PDS) through laptops to check corruption and to provide help to those living below poverty line (BPL), to get their monthly quota of essential commodities including food grain and kerosene oil, officials said.
Food inflation rose to 18.32 per cent for the week ended December 25, because of rise in prices of food items like onion, milk and meat.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to present a populist Railway Budget on February 24, leaving passenger fares untouched but rationalising the freight rates keeping the essential commodities aside.
As a result of the government's policies, 'some big trading companies as well as hoarders are making huge profits while the income of common people is being looted through high prices,' the party's Politburo said.
They want fare subsidies for only those below the poverty line, daily wage earners, senior citizens and students.
The opposition leaders are expected to meet at Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge's office in the Parliament complex around 10 am, sources said.
Majority of the respondents said that they have been falling behind financially and their standard of living has deteriorated.
Flaying the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the centre, and holding it responsible for the unabated price rise, BSP leaders made it a point to stress that, "none other than Mayawati can bring down the prices in the country."
The GST Council, in its meeting on Saturday, is likely to decide on reducing tax rates on life and health insurance premiums, while hiking it on high-end wrist watches, shoes and apparels, besides considering a separate 35 per cent tax slab for sin goods. The 55th meeting of the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising state counterparts, is likely to discuss rate rejig in about 148 items, besides, it will also deliberate on bringing Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), a major component for airline industry's operation cost, in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) fold.
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Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan sought to shift the blame on states saying they are equally responsible for keeping the prices of essential commodities under control
Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Sunday clarified that the government has no plans to bring back the recently repealed farm laws, and urged farmers to be wary of 'confusion' being created by the Congress on this issue.
Mukherjee said the high inflationary pressure, specially in food and some non-food articles, existed in other emerging economies also.
The minister recalled the steps taken by the government to deal with general inflation, which was in the negative zone in June-August, 2009, and had since risen to 9.9 per cent in March, 2010.
The restrictions under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure are in place since lockdown began.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday demanded that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government publish a 'White Paper' on rising prices of essential commodities that crippled lives of the middle class and the poor in the country.
The Supreme Court-appointed panel on the new agri laws on Thursday started its consultation process and interacted with 10 farmer organisations from eight states, including Uttar Pradesh.
Following a Manipuri delegation's appeal Anna Hazare may involve himself in finding a solution to the state's problems, reports A Ganesh Nadar from Pune
In an informal discussion with rediff.com late on Thursday evening, Kolkata-based economist Abhirup Sarkar discussed this burning issue.
"We would conduct the rally on some different day," Bhartiya Kisan Union Rakesh Tikait said.
Terming the government's move to hike petrol prices as "callous", the CPI(M) on Friday demanded immediate roll back of the hike and restoration of the administrative regulation of petrol pricing.
