Ravi Shankar Prasad, spokesman of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who has been given the task of looking after the Assembly elections in Chattisgarh, accused the Centre of betraying the common man by allowing steep rise in the prices of essential commodities and putting the country into an era of food insecurity.
Ahead of the crucial meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Prices for considering options to tame rising inflation, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said on Monday the government is looking at further cuts in duties on import of essential commodities. "Yes, we are looking at further cuts. There is increase in international oil prices and it has to be met with import duty caliberation which we are considering," Nath told reporters in New Delhi.
The United Progressive Alliance government has failed to address the agrarian crisis and the price rise of essential commodities and there is a need for a third alternative, Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat said on Saturday. Speaking at the party's 19th Congress in Coimbatore, Karat said this third alternative cannot be merely an electoral alliance.
Labh Singh, who runs a salon in Kurukshetra, has put up a stall a Singhu border and is providing free service to the protesting farmers. He has come with five workers.
The opposition parties will meet on Monday morning to evolve their strategy in both Houses of Parliament after protests by them on the Hindenburg-Adani issue overshadowed most of the first half of the Budget session.
Responding to concerns over the rise in inflation to 5.45 per cent, Finance Minister P Chidabaram said on Sunday that there was a supply-side constraint on essential commodities like pulses and the government would look at higher duty-free imports
'I was posted in different states of the country. We are also the son of a farmer. I come here as a farmer'
Olympic medallist boxer Vijender Singh, who joined the farmers' agitation at the Haryana-Delhi border on Sunday, said he will return his Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award if the Centre's new farm laws are not withdrawn.
Her statement came ahead of a crucial round of talks scheduled to be held between the Centre and representatives of the agitating farmers during the day.
The Congress leader also accused the Central government of lying on national television.
"SP had supported the UPA government to fight communal forces, but it has utterly failed to do so," he claimed.
'Interestingly in spite of slightly more than half (52%) the respondent farmers opposing the three new agri laws, almost 44% respondent farmers said the Modi government was 'pro-farmer'
And the only answer one can think of is that this is being done to preserve the image of toughness and 56 inches and all the rest of it, notes Aakar Patel.
Taking to Twitter, the Delhi chief minister said peaceful demonstration was a constitutional right of the farmers.
India's inflation rate shot up to its highest level in more than 16 years this month, increasing the chances of the fourth rise in interest rates in Asia's third-largest economy since June.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is learnt to have asked Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar to ensure that the supply of sugar, edible oil and pulses is not hampered during the ensuing Diwali and Navratra festivals.
Despite winning several times in court against the primary school council of the West Bengal government's education department, Sengupta has not been able to get his proper salary as per the present pay scale. The latest order in his favour from the high court came on Thursday, but Sengupta was sceptical after the fate of earlier orders.
Amid indication that prices of compressed natural gas (CNG) may go up in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said if the hike is allowed, it would compound the problem of the common people who are already hit hard by price rise.
Finance minister has made life difficult for seniors under the pretext of preventing tax frauds.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Thursday that the government would ensure ample supplies of essential commodities including food grains to check prices and assured more fiscal steps to contain inflationary pressures.
With both friends and foes warning that spiralling prices of essential commodities might sound the 'death knell' for the Manmohan Singh government, reining in inflation will be a task for the UPA to accomplish to escape the ire of voters. As the government is caught in the web of coalition politics, the Congress-led UPA has to do a tight-rope walk so as not to annoy its Left partners and at the same time keep the voters in good humour by containing inflation.
'Internal security, inflation and incompetence' of the United Progressive Alliance government are going to be the buzzwords of the saffron party to attack the Congress in the 2009 elections. "The Congress claims to champion the cause of the common man. And it is the same common man who is suffering because of this government's policies," party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said. While deciding the BJP nominees, the formula would be "party, principle and personality."
Almost 50% respondents said Modi has not done enough to check prices of essential commodities.
Rajnath Singh, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has predicted two third majority for the Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in the Assembly polls in Punjab for which the voting will conclude at 5 pm on Tuesday.
There has been relaxation in curfew for women and children on Friday to help them collect essential commodities being distributed in the area.
Kiran Vissa, co-convenor of National Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, said that amendments to the EC Act have nothing to do with farmers' welfare but instead meant to please big players and agriculture companies. This is because small and marginal farmers don't have the storage capacity to attract provisions of the EC Act.
"These are essential commodities which have great impact on inflationary expectations," Reddy told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Mumbai on Monday. High food and crude oil prices were in a way anticipated and 'the pressures have been flat,' he said.
Many people in the city fear that even going to markets could pose a threat and departmental stores have started reporting a gap in demand and supply of commodities.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of a 21-day lockdown across the country, Indian Railways on Tuesday said that its suspension of all passenger services will continue till April 14. However, freight movement will continue to carry essential commodities across the country, officials said.
Several Biharis from worst-hit Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts are opting to leave the state.
Patients and pregnant women, people out to buy essential items, and those travelling to or from railway stations, bus stops and airports will be exempted from the night curfew that kicks in at 11 pm on Monday due to rising COVID-19 cases in Delhi, according to a DDMA order.
Despite the government's efforts to control prices, inflation continues to rise, as prices of pulses, spices, eggs, fish and meat among other things continued to rise.
Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned for the day on Friday amid protests by opposition and Bharatiya Janata Party members over Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury's remark on President Droupadi Murmu.
With authorities not granting permission for a tent, five MPs slept under the sky as a protest against the suspension of 24 MPs, 20 from Rajya Sabha and four Congress members from Lok Sabha.
The step has been taken in view of the high density of population in Mumbai where there is more possibility of spread of the disease compared to other districts.
The principal commissioner has been made responsible for developing and approving any intelligence, conducting search, and completing investigations and relevant subsequent actions, including at the lower field formations, points out T N C Rajagopalan.
