New Delhi, November 17
Even as Congress president Sonia Gandhi impressed upon the UPA government to maintain the strictest vigil on the prices of essential commodities, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the AICC session here today that the rise in prices of certain essential commodities was in line with the global trends.
The Prime Minister said the government would soon come out with measures to improve the condition of farmers and hoped that India’s rate of poverty can be reduced to single digit within a decade.
At the same time, Dr Manmohan Singh made it clear that his government would work toward making food items available to the poor at affordable cost.
While the Congress president was truly impressed with the rate of economic growth, the Prime Minister said some relief would be available from the beneficial effects of the government’s initiatives to increase agricultural output.
Dr Manmohan Singh cautioned that the government did not have any control over
the factors leading to the rapid increase in the global prices of basic food commodities and emphasised that the government had been able to keep inflation under control in the range of 3-4 per cent despite crude oil prices touching nearly $ 100 per barrel.
“When our government came to office, the prices of crude oil was about $ 35 per barrel. It has now reached almost $ 100 a barrel,” he observed.
The Prime Minister said it had been the government’s endeavour to shield the poor and the vulnerable sections from the effects of this rise. “We have been quite successful in this regard.”
The government had done a lot in the past three and a half years and the main achievement of the UPA alliance had been that economic growth had averaged nine per cent per annum. “This growth rate is significant because in the absence of economic growth we would not be able to deliver our promises on all fronts.”
He pointed out that economic growth was not restricted to a few regions or a few sectors. “Agriculture is growing at an annual rate of four per cent and the manufacturing sector is growing at an impressive annual rate of 10 per cent. The beneficial effect of this growth pattern is that poverty figures are declining in most parts of the country.” He had no doubt that if the country continued on the present growth path, it would be “possible to reduce poverty to a single digit figure within the next decade”.
The Congress stressed that any increase in the retain prices of petrol and diesel should be the last resort of the government. “The AICC is well aware of the galloping oil prices in the international prices and calls upon the Congress-led UPA government to explore and exhaust all options before passing on any additional price burden to the consumers.”
On her part, Gandhi affirmed the government’s commitment of making India a truly global economic superpower. At the sme time all efforts would be made to ensure equitable distribution of benefits of economic growth to the weaker sections of society.
In a resolution, the Congress called upon the government to keep a check on the prices of essential commodities. “The AICC also calls upon the government to exercise the greatest vigil on the operations of the futures markets in agricultural commodities through an effective and statutory regulatory system so that abnormal price increases are checked well in time,” the resolution added.
