Buddhadeb blames Centre for price hike

Kolkata, Jun 29 (UNI) West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherjee today criticised the Centre for failing to control the hike in prices of essentials, saying the state government had no role in it.

Asked to comment on any initiative of the state administration to reduce the hike in prices, the Chief Minister today said since the market prices of essentials were solely determined by the Centre, the state governments had no role in determininig its price mechanism at any point of time.

Fully subscribing to the view that the prices of several commodities were soaring high and going beyond the affordability of commonmen, Mr Bhattacherjee said it was the responsibility of the Union government to control the prices and check the trend of any abnormal increase.

Since such hikes were effected at the national level, no state government could intervene unilaterally and take steps to bring it down at the desired level despite realising that such price hike was causing immense hardship to the people, the Chief Minister said and squarly blamed the Centre for not acting swiftly enough to do the needful.

But, he said the state was in constant touch with the Centre on the issue and monitoring the situation.

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