Vadodara: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Modi on Friday came down heavily on Congress president Sonia
Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA government
on the price rise.
Modi's accusations against Sonia and the Prime
Minister come on the eve of two-day chief ministers'
conference convened by the Prime Minister in Delhi on February
6 and 7 to discuss the price rise issue. Till now, Modi had
refrained from making any reference to Sonia Gandhi on the
issue. He, however, had criticised the Prime Minister for
postponing the meeting of chief ministers which was to be held
in the last week of January. He had criticised the Manmohan
Singh that he (Singh) had not understood the seriousness of
the situation from the point of common man.
Addressing a gathering at Garib Kalyanmela in Talaja
town in Bhavnagar district today, Modi said, "I have been
raising this issue to give vent to the feelings of poor people
and those belonging to middle class of the society who are
badly hit by price rise."
Modi criticised the Central government for blaming the
State government for its failure in checking price rise of
the essential commodities. "It is the responsibility of the
Centre to contain the rise of prices and its failure can not
be passed on to the state governments."
Modi regretted that the Centre has not kept its
promise of controlling inflation. "It is the responsibility of
the Centre to curb price rise", he said. On the State's
efforts of controlling price-rise, he said that Gujarat has
taken all measures and is continuously keeping highest
agriculture growth rate of 10 per cent.
Modi wanted the Prime Minister to own responsibility
on failure of the Centre in curbing price rise of essential
commodities.
The ongoing Garibkalyan Mela across the state, has
provided a good opportunity to Modi attacking failure of the
Centre in containing inflation.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, February 06, 2010, 00:08