THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the Union Government taking emergency measures to fight spiralling prices, the state government had embarked on its own measures to arrest the rise in prices, including bringing more essential commodities within the scope of Kerala Essential Articles Control Act of 1986.
Food and Civil Supplies Minister C Divakaran told mediapersons here on Friday that the Government would initiate necessary changes in the State Act of 1986 to bring those items under the Act which had been excluded by the Centre from the ambit of Essential Commodities Act of 2002.
"The Centre had made amendments to the Essential Commodities Act in 2002 resulting in exclusion of many essential articles from the ambit of the Act which had led to blackmarketing and hoarding of goods. Though some control was brought in later, it did not cover all essential commodities. By making necessary changes in the Kerala Essential Articles Control Act, the state plans to bring all of those articles under it," the Minister said.
A Rs 337-crore project submitted by the state which proposes to effectively utilise the public distribution system for distributing essential articles at subsidised rates to combat price rise, was turned down by the Centre, the Minister alleged.
“The project has been given in-principle approval by the State Planning Board. It had been requested to allot a sum of Rs 80 crore for the Food and Civil Supplies Department under the head of Plan Fund in the state Budget which would be utilised for market intervention,” the Minister said.
He said that the scheme for supply of rice at Rs 2 a kg would be expanded to cover 23 more categories of workers irrespective of whether they were living above or below the poverty line.
They will include traditional workers, construction workers, toddy workers, lottery agents, autorickshaw drivers, tailors, dairy farmers, painting workers and madrasa teachers as well as senior citizens and the disabled. The Minister said that 10 new mobile Maveli Stores would be launhced to take the total mobile Maveli stores to 20 in the next two months. The hypermarket being built by Supplyco here will be opened on February 1.
The Minister said that the State was becoming a role model to the country in controlling the price rise. He blamed the Centre for ignoring the Supreme Court directive regarding distribution of foodgrains in its godowns and demanded convening a meeting of the Food Ministers of States to discuss measures for price control.