Poor to be protected against inflation: Kalam

New Delhi, Feb 23 (UNI) A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought to place on state governments part of the burden of checking the rising prices of essential commodities, President A P J Abdul Kalam today said the poor would be protected against inflation.

Sharing concern over spiralling prices, Dr Kalam told a joint sitting of Parliament on the first day of the Budget session that the ''solemn commitment'' of the UPA government was to take all necessary steps to ensure that the poor were not adversely affected by inflation.

Taking pains to explain at length the reasons for the rising priceline, he said as growth and investment ''accelerate rapidly'' and incomes went up, ''there is bound to be a rising demand for all products, particularly products of day-to-day consumption.'' This rise in demand had to be met by a rise in supply which would take some time to materialise. During the last eight weeks, the government had taken a number of fiscal and monetary steps to moderate inflation, Dr Kalam reasoned.

On economic growth, the President said given the current trends of over eight per cent growth and the general policy direction, the target of a nine per cent growth for the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12) was a ''feasible proposition.'' It would be ensured that the high growth rate translated into generation of more employment, distribution of incomes more equitably, across social groups and regions, and liberation of the poorest of the poor from the scourge of poverty, ignorance and disease.

UNI