PM assured on widening PDS to rein in inflation: Left

New Delhi, Mar 7 (UNI) A day after Congress President Sonia Gandhi admitted that price rise was a major reason for the party's debacle in Punjab and Uttarakhand assembly polls, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today assured Left leaders that the government would soon take necessary steps to broadbase the public distribution system(PDS) to rein in the ''worrisome'' inflation.

The assurance came in a 20-minute meeting with the Left leaders during which Dr Singh said he would soon take up the matter with the Food and Supply Ministry to include the distribution of the LPG, pulses and other foodgrains by the PDS ration shops, CPI(M) Parliamentary Group leader Sitaram Yechury told newspersons.

''While the PM has given his individual endorsement of our demand, he said he would talk to the Food and Civil Supply Minister to work out the details for its implementation,'' Mr Yechury said.

The Rajya Sabha MP said the party MPs along with the leaders of the Federation of PDS Shopkeepers Associations also impressed upon the PM about the necessity of strengthening and widening the PDS and not to take to the privatisation course as had been proposed in the cases of railway tickets and postal services.

Besides Mr Yechury, the CPI(M) MPs, including Tarni Kant Rai, Moinul Hussain and Sujan Chakraborty, and RSP MP Joachim Baxla impressed upon Dr Singh that while the government had banned forward trading for wheat, rice and pulses and brought down the fuel prices, it should also strengthen the PDS to rein in the runaway inflation.

In a discussion on price rise in Parliament, the CPI(M) leader said they would try their best to raise the issue at the earliest even as such an issue could be taken only after discussions on Motion of Thanks on the President's address, the general budget and the Railway Budget were over.

He claimed that the ban on forward trading and reduction in fuel prices had helped arrest price rise.

''However, we will step up our pressure on the issue of price rise both in and outside Parliament,'' he added.

UNI