Women in Meghalaya protest price hike

Shillong, Jul 8 (UNI) Hundreds of women in the matrilineal state of Meghalaya today demanded the government to control prices and provide foodgrains at subsidised rates, especially to the poor people in the state.

Several women, under the banner of Synkuk Ki Seng Longkmie - Women Groups - gathered at the Malki ground here and blamed the ruling Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) for the price rise of essential commodities.

Meanwhile, state Food and Civil Supplies Minister J A Lyngdoh instructed the district-level price monitoring committees to meet every fortnight to monitor the inflation situation, besides directing all retailer shops to display their stocks and prices of essential commodities for public interest.

Meghalaya has no rail links and essential commodities are being transported daily through trucks via Assam, which could be one of the reasons for the price hike of essential commodities.

The women's groups, however, accused the government of indulging in red-tapism and not tackling the inflation rate.

''We will meet government officials to inquire what action the monitoring committee has taken to check the price rise,'' Women's Groups General Secretary Wandana Jyrwa said.

The organisations advocated that the state government should inspect the markets regularly to ensure that there was no manipulation of prices of essential commodities.

Earlier, several political parties, including the Opposition Congress in the Assembly, and NGOs had demanded the government to control the price hike.

The MPA government had also asked the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to keep sufficient buffer stocks to avoid any lapse in distribution of essential items besides activating the Public Distribution System (PDS) to ensure timely availability of adequate subsidised commodities for the people.

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