India
One crore citizens petition UPA government to check price spiral
New Delhi | May 12, 2008 9:19:58 PM IST
Members of various trade unions submitted a petition with one crore signatures to the Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Monday urging lawmakers to take effective steps to curb the price spiral in the country. Members of the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and 'Bharatiya Khet Mazdoor Union' collected one crore signatures from citizens of India and call upon the Government and lawmakers to take effective steps to contain the price rise and to revive and restore the Public Distribution System (PDS) to ameliorate the growing distress of the common people. "We have presented to the parliament one crore signatures with ten demands. The first demand is to curb price rise, the second is to restore the PDS. The third demand is to ensure that there is no violation of labour power; the fourth demand is no big business in the retail trade. And this matter will be raised in parliament when it is in session," said Gurudas Dasgupta, General Secretary, AITUC. Citizens from all over the country took part in the massive signature campaign to build broad public opinion. In the petition, they also demanded reduction in the prices of petroleum products, de-hoarding, ban on forward trading and speculation in food trade. However, Chatterjee told media persons after the meeting that it was upto the government to take appropriate action. "I have sent it to the Prime Minister. House is now closed. And it is for the government to take a decision. If anybody wants to, they have to give notice. They have to participate, that's my agony that it is not participated properly," said Chatterjee. India witnessed a galloping inflation rate accelerating to 7.41 per cent in early April, said to be the highest in more than three years and increased to 7.61 per cent late last week. With the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) having raised the cash reserve ratio, the proportion of deposits banks must keep with it, by 50 basis points to eight per cent to calm inflation in Asia's third largest economy and other fiscal tightening measures, the federal government expects the inflation to moderate soon. The RBI said it wanted to keep inflation at close to five per cent by the end of the 2007-08 fiscal year and its medium-term aim is to contain inflation around three per cent. (ANI)
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