Oppn stages walkout over price rise

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 5 (UNI) The Congress-led Opposition staged a walkout in the Kerala Assembly today to protest the government's refusal to discuss an adjournment motion on ''soaring prices'' of essential commodities.

Seeking leave for the motion, Mr Aryadan Mohammed (Cong) said people in state were finding it difficult to make both ends meet because of the rising prices of essential commodities.

Alleging that the government ''failed'' to take effective steps to control prices, he said the State Civil Supplies Corporation (Supplyco) had also raised the issue of price rise, forgetting its prime task of market intervention to check price-rise. The state government's taxation policy had also contributed for hike in the prices, he pointed out.

Leading the walkout, Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy alleged that Supplyco had effected a 30 per cent increase in the prices of essential commodities since the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government came to power eight months ago.

He said even though the Centre had reduced the prices of diesel and petrol twice during the period, transportation costs of essentials had not come down.

There had been no sincere efforts on the part of the government to hold talks with truck operators to bring down the transportation cost, he added.

Replying to a notice on the motion, Food and Civil Supplies Minister C Divakaran claimed that the prices of essential commodities had come down considerbaly during the last one month because of market intervention by Supplyco.

Supplyco and other government agencies were now procuring essential commodities from the producing centres directly and making them available to the people at reasonable prices, he said and adding that 500 more 'Maveli'' outlets would be opened to sell essentials.

Mr Divakaran said the Centre had been urged to bring inflation under control and implement the Essential Commodities Act effectively to control prices.

It had also been asked to restore the original quota of rice, wheat and kerosene.

In the light of the Minister's reply, Speaker K Radhakrishnan refused leave for the motion.

UNI