Allies’ threat to Govt on PDS prices

“Since it is our commitment to the people of Maharashtra to stabilise prices of the five essential commodities at the 1995 level, we will bear the additional financial burden for the purpose and provide these commodities at the old rates,” Joshi said.

The Government’s additional financial burden on account of this will be Rs 22 crore per month.Joshi said he will take up the issue of hike in the prices of essential commodities with the PrimeMinister. “I feel that the Centre should give special grant for the purpose,” he said.

On its part, the TDP is considering several options including the recall of Lok Sabha Speaker G M C Balayogi. Party president and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is even considering withdrawal of support to the coalition and a decision will be taken after he returns from Davos on February 2.The TDP claims that the steep hike in the issue price of rice will hit the Andhra Pradesh Government’s “safety net” programme.

Naidu is understood to have spoken to Balayogi — who’s touring his constituency in East Godavari district — and told him to be prepared to quit if the Central Government “continued its policies that affected the State’s interests.”

Naidu held a meeting of the party’s politburo at his residence this evening where he discussed with members the course the party would take after his return from Davos.

Naidu felt the TDP was being “insulted and ignored” as several pleas for assistance andclearances went in vain. This was despite the restraint the party was showing unlike the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and more recently, the Trinamool Congress.

The first time the State Government felt slighted was the controversial “Rs 200-crore aid” announced by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee after a tour of cyclone-ravaged areas last year. The amount has neither been cleared so far nor has there been any clarification as to whether it is an assistance or a grant.

The Centre is also yet to give counter-guarantees for the State’s World Bank-aided power board restructuring project despite several representations by Naidu himself and follow-up action by the State Government’s special representative in Delhi, V Sobhanadreeswara Rao.

Naidu is said to have been pained over the lack of response to his letter to the Prime Minister seeking a meeting of the National Development Council to discuss the growing attacks on minority groups in the country. “Apart from not consulting us on several issues,the BJP is not extending the minimum courtesy and is taking us for granted,” a senior minister pointed out.And now comes the increase in prices of essential commodities. The TDP is angry that it wasn’t even consulted and it will have to shell out an additional Rs 430 crore to meet the requirements of its subsidised rice scheme which is already draining the exchequer of Rs 730 crore.

When asked directly at a news conference whether the TDP would reconsider its support to the BJP, Naidu said there were several options open to the party.

Meanwhile, Om Prakash Chautala, another ally and head of the Indian National Lok Dal, today threatened to withdraw support to the Vajpayee Government if the hike in prices of urea, rice, wheat and sugar were not rolled back immediately. The INLD has four members in the Lok Sabha.

Talking to reporters here today, Chautala, who is also leader of the Opposition in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, said that he was rushing to Delhi to meet Vajpayee to lodge his party’s “strongprotest” over the issue. “I would start by requesting the Prime Minister to forthwith withdraw the hike in PDS and urea prices because it would adversely hit the common man and farmers. If they fail to concede our demand, we would protest and can even withdraw support to the BJP-led coalition,” he said.

Last year, Vajpayee had rescinded the order for increase in urea prices after the INLD and a few other parties opposed the hike. “If the Government is facing a resource crunch, it should try to shore up its finances by raising funds from other sectors,” Chautala said.