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03.08.2010
∗ SHRI PREM DAS RAI (SIKKIM): Sir, I thank you for giving me an
opportunity to express my views in this important debate. At the outset I would
like to state that my party, the Sikkim Democratic Front Party, had asked for a
debate on this very issue under rule 193. We did not see any reason for keeping
the House under siege for so long a period when we wasted so much of time. We
are where we should have been a week ago. Nevertheless, better sense has
prevailed.
I would like to bring to the attention of the House on a few but very
important points. Almost all the issues have been covered substantially by so
many speakers. Price rise affects us all and the poor more so. It has been pointed
out in a report of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs that in 2009,
13.6 million more people were pushed into the ranks of the poor in our country
because of joblessness and high rates of inflation.
This mean that even though our GDP numbers looks good and that we have
so much more money to pull people out of poverty, we are not able to do so in a
meaningful way. The demand push drive of inflation has indeed had debilitating
effect on the poor and will continue to do so unless we are able to give better and
more substantial safety net for the people below the poverty line. In other words
poverty is as dynamic as any other phenomenon related to the economy.
I understand that in the last 15 years or so the question of inflation and
price rise has been one of the most debated topics in this House. This is a ready
reflection that our democracy is working and the issues of the poor find ready
voices and ears here. If we go back and just change the dates, the debates and the
issues would essentially remain the same. So what has changed? Really nothing
if you come to think about it. The people who are poverty stricken are therefore
hardly amused by the antics of us Parliamentarians.
The issues on the table are the same. They are what kind of administrative
measures are being taken to control black marketeers, hoarders and speculators?
∗ Speech was laid on the Table.
194