CM asks DCs to check price rise

Hyderabad, Mar 10 (UNI) Taking a cue from Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who had attributed the drubbing in Punjab and Uttaranchal to price rise, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today directed District Collectors to act swiftly to curb price rise.

Realising that price rise might cost his Government politically, he asked the District Collectors to ''discipline the traders''.

Addressing the District Collectors conference here, he wanted them to prevail upon the traders to operate with less margin and make profits with a better business turnover. The overall responsibility was on them to put into action the Government's policies and programmes, he underlined.

Attributing price rise to fall in food production, he said ''we had less production during Khariff due to drought in some parts of the state and floods in other parts of the state''.

''Thanks to good Rabi crop, prices of essential commodities will come down significantly now now'', he hoped.

The dehoarding operations had started yielding results and prices of essential commodities, including pulses were coming down, he said.

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