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Rising “Dal” prices raises the concern over functioning of government, Jaitley orders probe

The rising price of “Dal” (lentils) has become a major issue of concern since the present government took over in the centre. Dal was costing

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The rising price of “Dal” (lentils) has become a major issue of concern since the present government took over in the centre. Dal was costing between Rs. 50 to Rs. 60 per Kg in the year 2012 has shot up to Rs. 200 per kg within just 3 years time. There is no doubt that the above hike in the rate is due to excessive accumulating of the pulses in the godowns by the hoarders. Based on the information provided by the PTI news, countering the criticism of the rival parties in Bihar in the backdrop of Bihar polls, Arun Jaitley has promised to provide the relief by importing the pulses and asked the JD (U) government to take action on the hoarders and provide some relief to the people of the states.

While trying to rationalise the facts, Jaitley informed the media that, the production of the pulses hampered nationally as well as globally, according to him the pulses production gone down by almost 5 million tonnes this year in our country alone and the situation is further aggravated by hoarders. “The central government is taking all necessary steps to control the prices by importing pulses,” Said Jaitly. According to Jaitly 12 states government has already acted against the hoarders and recovered 50 thousand tonnes of pulses from their godowns. He said that if Bihar takes the similar action against the hoarders it will benefit them. “If Bihar government act against hoarders, the people of the state would only benefit,” he said.

On asking by media, the reason behind the price rise Jaitley took a different turn and replied that inflation which was 12 percent one and half year ago has been brought down to 4 percent, which was the irrelevant answer to the question. He continued his statement claiming that the prices of various other items such as diesel, petrol, metal, sugar and wheat have gone down except the pulses.

The issue of price rise was raucously raised by the local leaders, Lalu Prasad and Nitish Bharadwaj to stage the attack on ruling government and to corner the BJP government over the issue of complete failure to control the prices of essential commodities in the nation. While countering the attack of opposition the ruling government had positioned two union ministers Radha Mohan Singh and Ram Vilas Paswan for blaming the state government for their failure to boost the pulses production and act against the hoarders. They claimed that Bihar government did not do anything to increase the production of the pulses in the state and that they allowed free hands to the hoarders.

The sources have revealed that around 75000 tonnes of pulses from 13 states have been seized out of which the biggest chunk comes from Maharashtra 46,397 tonnes followed by Karnataka 8,755 tonnes, Bihar 5000 tonnes, Chattisgarh 4,530 tonnes, Telangana 2,546 tonnes, Madhyapradesh 2,295 tonnes and Rajasthan 2,222 tonnes.

The centre has already requested the state governments to conduct the meetings with millers, wholesalers and retailers to make pulses available in the retail market at reasonable rates, few states have already moved forward in this direction.

The suppression of hoarding and proper negotiations with state government may bring the Dal prices under control. Otherwise, there is no other solution available for this problem. Dal is the main staple food of major chunk of vegetarian people across the country and rise in prices is affecting the major portion middle-class people of the society. In fact today everybody is doing politics over this issue instead of working towards the solving the problem.

Sources: Various Sources

Edited by Goa Prism News Desk               

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