Ex-CM blames Cong for inflation

By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Guwahati, May 24: Former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta on Saturday held the ruling Congress responsible for the nationwide inflation, blaming the government for failing to check it in an effective manner.

Maintaining that inflation had zoomed upwards in Assam due to the government's "incompetence", he said black marketing and hoarding were aggravating the situation. The check gates where trucks are allegedly forced to shell out money and the failure of the public distribution system have also worsened the situation in the state, he added. Mr Mahanta said this unprecedented inflation could have been controlled to a great extent had the Central government acted promptly.

Opposing the proposed hike of the patrol and diesel, he said the government should some other measures to rationalise the prices of petrol and diesel as it have direct bearing on the prices of essential items, thereby affecting the common people. He also advocated that oil producing state should be given special incentive on prices of patrol and diesel.

He regretted that the state government has failed to tackle price rise as states like AP, Tamil Nadu and New Delhi have taken steps to check the price rise and stop the hoardings of essential commodities. "In Assam, there is no government. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi's reply was more frustrating for the common people that price rise is not the problem of Assam alone, but China is also facing a similar situation."

He said: "When there is a blast in Guwahati, Mr Gogoi says it also takes place in London. Now in the case of price rise, he is referring to inflation in China."

I don't know what is he talking about."

The former chief minister said that the Congress was serving the interest of black marketers and unscrupulous businessmen by making such irresponsible and baseless comparisons.