The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Naidu for steps to check price rise of essential commodities

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 13, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Naidu for steps to check price rise of essential commodities

Special Correspondent

Leads TDP walkout on the issue during Question Hour in Assembly

HYDERABAD: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) staged a walkout during Question Hour in the Assembly on Monday protesting against the steep increase in prices of essential commodities and neglect of rythu bazaars by the State Government.

Leading the walkout, Leader of Opposition N. Chandrababu Naidu mounted a scathing attack against the Government and sought to know what steps it was taking to curb this trend.

Padala Aruna (TDP) highlighted the rise in vegetable prices and pointed out that brinjals were bring sold at Rs. 50 a kg.

Regarding rythu bazaars, he said middlemen were controlling them. He alleged that the Government wanted to hand over to middlemen the bazaars, a concept developed by TDP regime to benefit both producers and consumers of vegetables. It was not the farmers but middlemen who were the vendors there. The estate officers were hand in glove with them, he alleged.

Mr. Naidu added that the prices of commodities at the bazaars had gone up steeply, contributed by the exploitation by middlemen. The Government had withdrawn RTC buses for transporting farmers to the bazaars with the produce. As a result, there was depletion in the stocks. Marketing Minister Botcha Satyanarayana denied there was a move to pull out the buses. He said there were 95 bazaars in the State before the Congress took over the reins of power.

Move denied

The Government had issued orders for setting up three more at Ramachandrapuram, Madanapalle and Wanaparthy. Denying collection of user charges from farmers, he said only canteen owners and shopkeepers selling other commodities were asked to pay up for availing facilities.

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