Action sought against those hoarding essential commodities

Secretary of the State unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxists) V.J.K. Nair said here on Wednesday that the Government should ban forward trading in essential commodities to control price rise.

Addressing a joint conference of CPI (M) and Communist Party of India (CPI) workers on Price rise and food security at the Town Hall, he said that if the Government did not stop forward trading, prices of essential commodities would go beyond the reach of common man.

Mr. Nair said that people were finding it difficult to buy foodgrains owing to price rise. On the other hand, farmers were not getting any profit in spite of prices of foodgrains being high in the market. This indicated that middlemen were the actual beneficiaries, he said.

He alleged that multinational companies (MNCs) were making an all-out effort to control the Indian market and promote commercial crops. Mr. Nair said that the Government should take stringent action against those hoarding essential commodities.

He claimed that daily income of 70 per cent of the people in the country was not more than Rs. 20. In such a condition, it would be difficult to achieve economic stability, Mr. Nair added.

H. Vasantha Rai, member of the State committee of the CPI, said that the economic policy being implemented in the country was only making rich people richer and the poor poorer. It was a market-driven policy. Arjun Sengupta, chairman of National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector, in his report on social security, submitted to the Union Government, had stated that economic developments taken place in the country since the Independence had benefited only 30 per cent of the population. This indicated the direction on which the Indian economy was moving, he said.

He said that 35 lakh people had applied for 20,000 clerical posts in a nationalised bank recently. This showed the extent of unemployment in the country.

B. Madhava, president of the Dakshina Kannada unit of the CPI (M) said that the Government should address the nutrition problem being faced by workers in the country.

P. Sanjeeva, secretary of the district unit of the CPI, and K.R. Shreyan, State secretariat member of the CPI, were present
(Courtesy : The Hindu)