Chennai, August 26: CPI leader Gurudas Das Gupta today slammed the Centre,saying it had no ‘political commitment’ in controlling the price rise of essential commodoties including food grains and vegetables.
“Instead of controlling the price rise, Central Government is indulging in import of food grains”,he told reporters here.
He alleged that large-scale hoarding of food grains was taking place and accused both Centre and Tamil Nadu Government of having failed to take any action against the hoarders.
On job loss in India due to recession, he said there was no package for those who lost their jobs due to economic slowdown.’As per information we got,about 50 lakh persons have lost their jobs since September last due to recession.There is a relief package for IT sector but at the same time there is no such thing to the people who lost their jobs,’ he said.
He said it was because of the presence of a strong public sector that the US economic meltdown had not affected India much. “Public sector unit is a buffer but the government is trying to weaken it”, he alleged.
Gupta also said Centre had not called for a meeting of chief ministers when the drought situation across the country was increasing. “Centre should take concrete steps to tackle the drought situation since farmers are very much dependent on rainfall for their agricultural activities”, he added.
Gupta, who is AITUC All India General secretary, said the Central Trade Unions have decided to submit a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan singh on various issues and hold a national convention of Trade Unions at Delhi in September 2009 to chalk out common future programme.
—Agencies