BeyondHeadlines News Desk
New Delhi: Welfare Party of India (WPI) strongly urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to revise and redraft the economic policy pursued by UPA and demanded to make it humane, free from local and foreign corporate pressures and be people-friendly.
Party general secretary Dr. S.Q.R. Ilyas while inaugurating the sit-in-dharna organized by the Delhi unit as part of its nationwide protest day against price rise observed the country was witnessing an unprecedented and worse economic slowdown since independence. He demanded to make the Public Distribution System (PDS) stronger and to make essential commodities easily available through the PDS as a way to control the price rise. He also asked for special drive against the hoarders and black marketers all over the country. He urged the governments to constitute Price Regulatory Authorities at Centre and state levels that would monitor trends in the market, suggest effective and timely steps to control and regulate the prices of commodities.
Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, vice –president of the Party alleged that the Congress-led UPA government increased the price of petrol many times. Government imposes various kinds of taxes and levies on oil making it highly expensive whereas petroleum products are much cheaper in almost all neighboring countries. With deregulation policy of petroleum products in force, it has become common to increase the prices of petrol and diesel at intervals, citing dubious reasons and under pressure from powerful oil corporates. He made it clear that every increase in the prices of petroleum products automatically pushed prices up of other commodities and thereby raising the cost of living.
WPI secretary Dr. Tasleem Rehmani criticized the Congress led UPA government for ignoring the farming community and those who live in villages. He said the freedom struggle was not fought to replace white British with black
Indians with same exploitative mindset. He said Welfare Party will spearhead a new movement aimed at eradicating all exploitations and eliminating socio-economic imbalances in the country.
P.C. Hamza, general secretary of the Party said that prices of essential commodities within last four years have gone up to nearly 300 % as per official figures of the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs. Day-to-day experience testifies that the rise is much higher than these figures and it makes the common man’s life unbearable. He alleged that the Central government was more worried about the fake agonies of the corporate sector than the real woes of the common man. Foreign investments with no strings attached have proved to be a bane not a gain for our economy as seen in the continuing slide of the national currency vis-à-vis the US dollar.
A press release issued by the Party said that the national protest day against price rise was observed across the country with various programmes like dharnas, processions, public meetings, cycle rallies etc
