Lok Sabha discusses price rise

New Delhi, July 9 (IANS) The opposition Wednesday attacked the government on the issue of price rise in the Lok Sabha and questioned the steps taken to control the increase in prices of essential commodities.

Congress deputy leader in the house, Amarinder Singh asked "where is the achche din (good days)" promised by the BJP during the election campaign and slammed Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's statement that food prices are under control and there is no need to panic.

He demanded a complete ban on onion exports to control the vegetable's soaring price.

Singh said the farmers who produce vegetables, including potatoes, onions and tomatoes were selling their produce at a low price and hoarders and middlemen were responsible for the prices of essential commodities shooting up.

The discussion on price rise was held under a rule that does not entail voting. The opposition had initially demanded a discussion under an adjournment motion which would have entailed censure and voting.

AIADMK's M. Thambidurai said: "At least now the Congress has realized that the people are suffering and they have given a notice to discuss the matter."

"Now it is your (BJP) time to tackle this problem," he added.

Rejecting opposition charges, BJP's Anurag Thakur said the UPA government couldn't control prices in their 10 years of rule. "In the last 10 years of UPA rule, 17 discussions took place on price rise and during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's regime only one."

"It hurts when UPA talks of corruption and price rise," he said, adding: "The UPA has not left behind anything. The coffers are empty."

Trinamool Congress' Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said: "Something should be done on the packaging of food grains as every year we lose huge amount of grains due to storage problems".

B. Mehtab of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) said the central government needs to work in tandem with the state governments to control inflation.

He called for improvement of cold storage facilities.