[Marxistindia] (no subject)

[news from the cpi(m)]

                                                        January 22, 2010


Press Statement


The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued
the following statement:



The CCP decision to make an additional allocation of 10 kg of wheat or
rice to all eligible card holders under the TPDS not at the present
central issue price of foodgrains but at the higher minimum support
price, far from being a help to control prices as being claimed by the
Government, will in effect import price rise into the TPDS itself. It
represents, in comparison to the present TPDS central issue prices for
APL allocations a steep hike of over 77 per cent hike in the case of
rice and 85 per cent in the case of wheat. If this so-called additional
allocation is to be distributed to the BPL and Antodaya sections a BPL
card holder who gets rice at present at five rupees a kilo will have to
pay three times the price and Antodaya card holders will have to pay
five times more. In the case of wheat, BPL sections will have to pay
double more and four times more in the case of Antodaya. 



The claims are thus fraudulent. Instead of restoring the 73 per cent cut
in the allocations of foodgrains made to the states made over a period
of time to APL sections, the Central Government is giving foodgrains at
higher cost to the states.


The CPI(M) demands that the additional foodgrains be made at the central
issue prices being currently used for the targeted public distribution
system.