Sonia Holds March To Demand Rollback

Congress president Sonia Gandhi yesterday led a march to Prime Minister's residence demanding a roll back of increase in prices of foodgrains and kerosene distributed through the PDS, cooking gas and fertilizers.

Senior party leaders including Manmohan Singh, Madhavrao Scindia, Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, AICC general secretaries, CWC members and MPs took part in the early morning march.

In a memorandum presented to Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, the party vowed to continue its struggle until the time the government rolled back the price increase. Vajpayee is said to have told the Congress delegation that he had expected the Congress to support the government on the subsidies issue. But even Congress was taking a populist line.

 

Later, speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition Manmohan Singh said that the subsidies issue could not just be wished away by the government and the government must seriously examine the entire issue.

Vajpayee told his party MPs that the economy could not be run on populism and that the Congress was being unreasonable in demanding a roll back.

In its memorandum, the Congress said that the Budget 2000 had taken the first step towards dismantling the PDS. In one stroke, the government had effected a increase of 68 per cent in the prices of rice and wheat for the families below the poverty line. Even for families above the poverty line there is an increase of 23 per cent for wheat and 29 per cent for rice. There is also 8.3 per cent increase in the PDS price of sugar.

This "has aggravated the nutritional deprivation of the most vulnerable and defenceless sections of the population", the memorandum said.