Karat criticises UPA for failure to control price rise

Guwahati, Jan 31 (PTI) CPI(M) General Secretary PrakashKarat today accused the Central government of serving theinterest of big business houses and the corporate sectorleading to price rise.

Karat told reporters here that non-universalisation ofthe public distribution system (PDS) and the government''sfailure to ban forward trading was leading to spirallingprices of food items.

With the prices of petrol being deregulated, the cost ofpetrol had been hiked seven times in as many months, theCPI(M) leader said.

He said a joint movement by non-Congress non-NDA partiesis being held against price rise from February three, whichwould culminate in a mass rally in Delhi on February 9.

Referring to alleged corruptions and scandals, includingthe 2-G spectrum scam, during the tenure of the UPAgovernment, Karat said his party will stick to its demand fora JPC in the budget session of Parliament, where it wouldraise the multi-crore rupee scam as mentioned in CAG report.

He said the ''black money'' in Swiss and other foreignbanks is illegal and even being linked to criminal activity.

"This is simply not a question of avoiding double taxation bydifferent countries as argued by Finance Minister PranabMukherjee. The illegal money should be recovered".