Price hike reflects failure of UPA govt: CPI(M)

Attacking the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for its "utter failure" to check rising prices, the CPI(M) on Friday said the Centre's "faulty approach" in blaming states, without taking effective steps to tackle the real issues, would not solve the problem.

The government's "faulty approach is evident in the decision to release buffer stocks of food grains in the open market rather than to provide it to state governments at subsidised rates to restore the earlier cuts in allocations to APL sections," the CPI(M) Politburo said in a statement.

Observing that inflation in food articles remained "very high" at 17.28 per cent on January 2, it said the continued rise in prices of sugar, cereals, pulses, vegetables and milk "reflects the utter failure of the Congress-led government in checking food prices and inflation."

Responding to the recent decisions of the Cabinet Committee on Prices, the party said the Centre "wants to shirk its own responsibility by blaming the States. Without a proper assessment of the causes behind the relentless increase in food prices, effective measures cannot be undertaken."

Referring to high sugar prices, it said instead of building a sugar buffer stock, the government has incentivised exports to "help big traders and sugar mill owners".

The slew of concessions given to them last year has not lowered sugar prices, but "only the traders and big companies have profited. Some of the trading corporates have reported profits from 150 to 300 per cent."