Take steps to control inflation, Anbumani Ramadoss tells State govt.

PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss on Friday criticised the State Government for achieving the “highest inflation of 7.29% in October” among all other States in India as per the Statistics released by the Union Government. In a statement, he said the poor and middle class families are facing severe hardship due to rising prices of essential food commodities, including rice, pulses and edible oils.

“While the national inflation rate has increased to 6.09%, exceeding the Reserve Bank of India’s tolerance limit of 6%, Tamil Nadu’s inflation rate is 1.20 percentage points higher. The statistics also reveal that rural populations have been more severely affected by inflation than their urban counterparts,” he said.

Dr. Anbumani further said prices of essential commodities, particularly rice, have increased to unaffordable levels in Tamil Nadu compared to other states and said that sharp increase in rice prices have resulted in rise in inflation.

“The government has failed to take any meaningful action. The scheme to supply onions at subsidised rates through ration shops has failed. Similarly, the government’s announcement that fine-quality rice would be supplied at Rs.30 per kg failed to receive public support because the rice distributed was merely polished ration-shop rice.

These failures have contributed to Tamil Nadu’s inflation reaching such a high level,” he said. Dr. Anbumani added that people cannot be expected to withstand further increase in prices of essential commodities when per capita income in Tamil Nadu has been declining.