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| Cong raps Pawar on price rise |
| Saubhadro Chatterji / New Delhi Feb 06, 2010, 01:23 IST |
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Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was under attack at a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting today, as the party brass expressed its concerns over the rise in the prices of essential commodities.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee — the first and the last speaker of today’s meeting — expressed confidence that food prices would come down soon, but more than 10 speakers in the meeting slammed Pawar and advised the government to restrain him from making public comments.
Pawar is the chief of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), a key constituent of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.
Top sources in the Congress suggest Pawar’s name was not mentioned even once in the meeting. Pawar was referred to as “the minister”, “agriculture ministry” and at times “responsible ministers” by the CWC members. “Many members suggested in front of the PM that the agriculture minister should not issue statements like the price of sugar will increase, or the supply of pulses is low. These types of statements are perceived as threats and warnings and makes the common man nervous,” said a Congress general secretary.
Some members also remarked that the food minister should take his job “more seriously”.
While CWC left it to the government to take appropriate measure to control price rise, some members spoke about measures to increase food production, more aggressive de-hoarding drives and strict action against black marketeers. All the chief ministers are asked to report what they have done to control prices in their states and problems faced by them. There also the Food Corporation of India, headed by Pawar’s ministry, came under criticism of CMs from north-eastern states.
The CWC meeting was convened two days after an expert group headed by former Planning Commission member Kirit Parikh recommended market-determined pricing for petrol, diesel and other fuel products.
But Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi claimed no one raised any question on that report today. “Nobody mentioned anything about the proposed fuel price hike or that report,” he said.
After chalking out the agenda for today’s meeting and expressing deep concern over the price rise, Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked the finance minister to talk about the issue. Mukherjee explained the price rise was not a local problem but a global phenomenon. He added that some measures had already been taken and prices of essential commodities were expected to fall further in the near future.
The prime minister said he also shared the concern over rising prices: “The situation is improving. It will improve further. We are trying to control inflation by increasing the production.”
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