Buddha lashes out at govt on price hike

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee came down heavily on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his government’s failure to check the rise in prices of essential commodities and said the country would have to fight the Congress tooth and nail to force it to give the anti-people policies its government is pursuing.

Addressing a Left Front gathering in Krishnanaga in Nadia district, Mr Bhattacharjee said “the Prime Minister had called six meetings in the past one year to discuss the issue of price rise. I had attended all those meetings. But now I find it useless to go to Delhi and hold talks with the Prime Minister. He has something to say on the issue of price rise and he had presented his opinion on the issue. We, too, have our own views which we explained at all these meetings. But no solution emerged. Sometimes, the Prime Minister says that price of essential commodities will come down slowly. But in reality, we are experiencing just the reverse. Everyday prices of essentials are rising.”

The chief minister also rebuked the Centre for the latter’s move to dismantle the public distribution and panchayati raj systems.