Kerala CM urges PM to take steps to reduce prices of news print

Thiruvananthapuram, May 6 (UNI) Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take immediate steps to reduce the increased prices of news print.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, he said the recent steep hike in the prices of news print had put the print industry in deep crisis, a release said here.

Mr Achuthanandan said the Prime Minister should interfere immediately to solve the crisis by taking steps to stall the price hike.

If the government would not take steps to roll back the price hike, many newspapers would be forced to shut down, he said, adding their anxiety in this regard could not be ignored.

The Prime Minister should give necessary direction to the Hindustan News Print to issue special quota at a subsidised rate to the newspapers in the State, he said, and suggested that the Centre should consider to reduce the tax on imported news print.

Stating that the Hindustan News Print, a Central PSU, had increased the price of news print exorbitantly, he said there was no justification for their act, as the government had not yet increased the raw materials provided by them.

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