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Tripura CM ridicules panel on price rise

By staff reporter

GUWAHATI, Feb 8 � Tripura Chief Minister and veteran Communist leader Manik Sarkar today ridiculed the panel constituted by the Centre to check price rise, saying that price rise was a direct consequence of the policy of parties like the Congress and the BJP, which invariably received election funds from hoarders and blackmarketeers in the guise of big capitalists.

To make matters worse, Sarkar alleged, the Centre was doing precious little to streamline the public distribution system (PDS) which could have provided much succour to the common man.

Sarkar, who was addressing the 10th State conference of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), went to the extent of calling the Centre-convened meeting of Chief Ministers on price rise �a farce and an eyewash� to evade the real issue of containing blackmarketing and hoarding and strengthening the PDS.

�I was also present at the meeting and raised these issues�What purpose is this committee going to serve? This is a farce,� he said.

Questioning the sincerity of the Centre in curbing price rise, the Tripura Chief Minister said that the Centre was not even ready to provide foodgrains at above poverty line (APL) rates for the people in this hour of crisis.

Dwelling on the political party-blackmarketeer nexus, Sarkar said, �The Congress and the BJP take money during elections from big capitalists who resort to blackmarketing and hoarding later to recover their �dues� with the parties remaining silent,� he said.

Asserting that there was little scope for the North-east to develop in the real sense of the term under the present system of governance, Sarkar said that crucial issues of poverty alleviation, access to health care and education, employment generation and infrastructure improvement would continue to be neglected.

�People�s participation in governance is possible only through the socialist mechanism. We need an intense democratic movement in the region to establish people�s power and Assam being the nerve centre of the North-east has to lead the way,� he said.

Sarkar also came down hard on the capitalist economies of the world, holding those responsible for the global recession.

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