December 5, 2019
Sudip Bandyopadhyay speaks on rising prices of onions and other commodities
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Sir, price rise has become a serious issue in the whole country. Normally Sir, it is upto the government price monitoring division. Twenty two items are distributed through the government processes. These items are rice, wheat, atta, gram, arhar dal, moong dal, urad dal, masoor dal, tea, salt, sugar, vanaspati, groundnut oil, mustard oil, milk, palm oil, soya oil, sunflower oil, gur, potato, onion and tomato.
Sir, suddenly the prices of onions have gone to an extreme height, followed by potatoes. We are all concerned with that. Sir, what is the flow of increase in prices? I will just tell you. The average retail price of onion as on November 2019, rose by 61.94% over the month and 243.64% over the years.
Sir, what I feel is that the Government of India should send directions to the state governments for the enforcement departments to be active. Enforcement department is a state subject. So if ED becomes active in the state, dehoarding can be made over there; hoarding is a cause of price rise.
Sir, our Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee, visits the markets, for personal purview for why price rise is taking place. This process can be emulated by the chief ministers of other States. And the price monitoring division should be more active; they should rise to the occasion at the proper time. There is a proverb, “A stitch in time saves nine ”.
The prices of onions have gone out of limit. Price rise has gone out of extent. It is the failure of the Government of India and we all condemn it.
