Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday said the “anti-people policies” of the Congress government, especially its decision to allow oil companies to fix the price of petroleum products, were responsible for the price rise.
Replying to a special calling attention motion moved by the Left parties and others, the Chief Minister said price rise could be brought under control only if a change was made in fixing the price of petroleum products.
She also blamed the Centre for increasing fertiliser rates, alleging that it had resulted in increase in the prices of other commodities.
According to her, the higher procurement rates for paddy had completely failed to benefit the farmers since there was a rise in input costs.
She also listed out the measures taken by her government to keep under control the price of essential commodities and ensure fair price for agricultural produce. ‘Amma’ canteens, serving foods at a cheaper price in Chennai Corporation will be introduced in other Municipal Corporations in a phased manner.
She said besides distribution of 20 kg free rice to ration cardholders, the government was selling palm oil, green gram and black gram at a cheaper price.
“The government is giving a grant of Rs 1,006 crore per annum and the scheme will continue till March 2014,” she said.
Ms. Jayalalithaa said her government would take steps to open Farm Fresh Consumer Outlets through cooperatives and Horticulture department to link the farmers and consumers.
As an immediate measure to control the price of rice, the government would sell 10,000 tonne fine variety rice to consumers at a rate of Rs. 20 per kg. Pointing out that limiting the supply of LPG cylinders affected people, she said the AIADMK government had cancelled VAT on cooking gas from July, 2011.
Ms. Jayalalithaa said the current practice of fixing the price of petroleum products by calculating the Import Parity Price and Export Parity Price and arriving at Trade Parity Price was wrong.
