TRS stages walkout over Centre’s failure in addressing price rise

Hyderabad: The TRS staged a walkout from the Lok Sabha protesting against union Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman’s reply to the debate on price rise on Monday. TRS Lok Sabha floor leader Nama Nageshwara Rao said the Centre had failed to answer the issues raised by the Opposition parties and was running away from its responsibility […]

Hyderabad: The TRS staged a walkout from the Lok Sabha protesting against union Finance Minister Niramala Sitharaman’s reply to the debate on price rise on Monday. TRS Lok Sabha floor leader Nama Nageshwara Rao said the Centre had failed to answer the issues raised by the Opposition parties and was running away from its responsibility to take measures to control the price rise which was highly objectionable.

Participating in the debate earlier, the TRS Lok Sabha floor leader slammed the Centre for not taking corrective steps to control the price rise which was making the poor poorer. He pointed out that despite the shortage of rice and wheat in the global market, the union government was not purchasing paddy from Telangana which recorded a cent per cent increase in paddy production.

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Nageshwara Rao stated that the prices of essential commodities and petroleum products had increased significantly under the NDA rule in the last eight years. While the poor were becoming poorer due to the price rise, the Centre continued to be in denial mode. He said the price rise had adverse impact on the lives of common people.

“Rather than taking steps to control the price rise, the Centre is on a denial mode and continues to hike the taxes. It is unfortunate that GST is being collected on even bread eaten by patients in hospitals,” the TRS MP said. He said though there was a significant growth in agricultural production as against global food shortage, the union government had failed to facilitate and open the global market for farmers in the country which could be win-win situation for both countries facing food crisis and India.

Listing out the measures taken by the State government to propel agriculture growth in Telangana, Nageshwara Rao accused the union government of denting the efforts without providing necessary support to the sector. He said the Centre had increased taxation on fertilisers as well as refusing to purchase paddy and wheat from the States.

Further, he stated that the fiscal management of Telangana was within the permissible limits of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He pointed out that the State government increased capital expenditure by developing irrigation projects, power plants and other infrastructure using the loans obtained from public sector banks. He reminded that due to these proactive steps taken by the State government, Telangana was the only State to ensure cent per cent drinking water connectivity to every household.