Congress criticises PM Narendra Modi for price rise of essential commodities

Congress today raised concerns over "rising inflation" and blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the spiraling prices of essential commodities like Arhar Dal, which has crossed Rs 200 per kg.

Party's senior spokesman Anand Sharma took a dim view of the economy in the country and criticised that the government's claim of economic progress are "misleading" as investments have not gone up in real terms.

Sharma accused the government of failing to import adequate quantities of Arhar Dal in time despite the fact that the pulse has the highest consumption in all parts of the country.

Insisting that the Prime Minister and Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan are "responsible" for this state of affairs, Sharma said that the government had advanced estimates of low production of pulses.

He claimed that though the shortfall was around 15 lakh tonnes, but imports were much lower.

Expressing concern over rising inflation, he said, "This government only talks, no work...There is huge gap between what they claim and the situation on the ground. The Prime Minister and government should walk the talk," he said.

On the state of the economy, the former Commerce and Industry Minister said, "Besides, he said that Indian industrialists are investing abroad and external commercial borrowings have gone up so also debt to GDP ratio. Capacity utilization has been low in industries. Credit off-take are at the lowest levels in the 20 years. Exports have been on the decline for the last nine months."

Senior Party leader Ahmed Patel took to twitter to target the government on rising prices of pulses.

"Govt was sleeping while Dal price rose. In March, crop estimate report had shown huge decline in Dal production, but they waited till Jun to act. While price continued to rise, govt wasted a crucial month as it insisted on a particular tendering technique unavailable with Agriculture Ministry," he said in tweets.