Rising prices would take away the sheen of other good things done by the government

By O J George

An over-populated country like India cannot suck in the tendency of rising prices thrown up perhaps by market forces and other vested interests.

These forces would always play their cards meticulously to reap windfall profits. But then , the government should step in and take steps to ameliorate the woes of the people.

Which people we mean? We may have scores of trillionaires, hundreds of billionaires and thousands of millionaires. They are not the core of the Indian populace.

A majority of the nearly 120 crore people are ordinary mortals of whom a substantial number of them are living below the poverty line.

You have divided them between below the poverty line and above the poverty line. The line is very thin and the so-called above the poverty line people are not much better off than the below the poverty line.

Of course, lakhs of people are given employment by the big-league private companies, most of them giving good salary to the staff. The government also gives employment to lakhs of people. And the lot of the government employees is not bad.

But there are scores of crores of people who have no gainful employment or regular work fetching them a monthly remuneration. They just live away their life over the crumbs they get by way of casual job, irregular daily wages and all. Mind you, we don’t have a system of payment by the hour for the work put in by anyone.

All tummies should be filled by food stuff. If the stuff costs them beyond their means, you cannot call it a welfare state. The mighty government can take various steps to rein in price rise tendency.

Edible items should be made available in plenty. Now that the import policy is liberalised, one can fill the gap of short supply through imports.

We hear about reports of proposals for export of sugar when it is ruling at over Rs 40 a kilo in the country!

It appears the Congress Party is seized of the matter and is thinking about advising the government to find ways to supply food items at fair price.

The APL-BPL conundrum should be solved. Afterall, what is the distinction between them in matters of food items? Let there be plenty of stuff available. Those who want the items would buy them.

The distinction would only provide opportunities for the officials to seek bribes. India is undoubtedly a corrupt country and generally nothing works without greasing the palm of the officials and agents concerned.

Once the BJP lost power in Delhi because the prices of onion had skryrocketed. The same is true of any government, for the people cannot afford to live in a society whose mores are determined by market forces alone.