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.
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.
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 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.
Tikait said the farmers are ready to talk with the government on the farm laws but made it clear that the discussions should be held without conditions.
"We would conduct the rally on some different day," Bhartiya Kisan Union Rakesh Tikait said.
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.
The restrictions under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure are in place since lockdown began.
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 government on Monday exempted importers of pulses from stock limits, and also relaxed the norms for millers and wholesalers, in view of softening of prices of the key pulses in the country. Now, the stock limits will be applicable only on tur, urad, gram and masoor for a period up to October 31, it said. However, these entities will continue to declare their stocks on the web portal of the Department of Consumer Affairs, it added. A revised order in this regard has been notified.
While prices of essential commodities have touched astronomical figures, water supply in the city has also been affected.
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.
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.
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.
National security advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday said the new areas of warfare have shifted from territorial frontiers to civil societies, adding that factors like people's health, their sense of well-being and security, and their perception of government impact the will of a nation.
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.
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."
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.
The Rajya Sabha proceeding washed out completely on Wednesday and was adjourned for the day amid continued protest by the Opposition parties led by the Congress over price rise and levy of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on daily essentials.
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.
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.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday exuded confidence that inflation would further decline and the government is on track to meet its budgetary target for deficit and said that there is no fear of stagflation in India. Replying to the debate on first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants 2022-23 in Lok Sabha, the finance minister said inflation has come down and it is now in the tolerable band of the RBI. Inflation has been declining since April 2022 and it is declining further, she said.
The government on Monday ruled out making public the RBI report detailing the reasons why the central bank could not keep inflation within the targeted 6 per cent upper limit for the three consecutive quarters. "Yes sir, RBI has furnished a report to the central government, as mandated under Section 45ZN of the RBI Act, 1934 and Regulation 7 of RBI Monetary Policy Committee and Monetary Policy process Regulations, 2016," minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply. The said provisions of the RBI Act, 1934, and regulations therein does not provide for making the report public, he said.
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.
They want fare subsidies for only those below the poverty line, daily wage earners, senior citizens and students.
Calling for public cooperation to the government's efforts to stem the spread of the virus, Stalin urged people to follow due protocol like social distancing and wearing of masks.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday said his government will bring a bill against the Centre's farm laws on the lines of Punjab.
The opposition alliance that will take on the ruling National Democratic Alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be called Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and an 11-member committee will be set up for coordination, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge announced after a meeting of the parties in Bengaluru.
Majority of the respondents said that they have been falling behind financially and their standard of living has deteriorated.
Strongly rebutting the charges, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said the Gulf countries are deeply committed to friendly relations with India and they are even seeking bilateral talks on the post-COVID-19 economic recovery. Talking about India's close and traditional ties with the Arab countries, he said New Delhi is ensuring uninterrupted supply of food and essential commodities to the region during Ramzan as part of its deep-rooted friendship.
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
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."
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Prime Minister Modi has certainly pulled back, and his political capital -- dependent as it is on an image that he knows best and never retreats -- may have taken a bit of a beating. But, equally, it is hard to say that the protesters have 'won', argues Mihir S Sharma.
Mukherjee said the high inflationary pressure, specially in food and some non-food articles, existed in other emerging economies also.
Automaker Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) on Tuesday said it will increase prices of its entire model range by up to 2 per cent with effect from October 1 in order to partially offset the impact of rise in input costs. The company, which is a joint venture between Japan's Toyota Motor Company and Kirloskar Group, sells a range of vehicles including Innova Crysta and Fortuner in the domestic market. The company will realign the prices of its models, with effect from October 1, 2021, TKM said in a statement.
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.
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.
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.
