By IANS
Bangalore : Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Saturday admitted that there was an urgent need to check rising prices of food and other essential commodities, at least for the sake of poor.
“It is in our interest that we check rising prices… Prices of food and other commodities have to be kept under control in the interest of the poor too. The prime minister and finance minister are working at it and will do their best to rein in prices,” Gandhi said at the end of his five-day tour of Karnataka.
Expressing concern over inflation and relentless price rise, Gandhi said that as the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was “of the poor and for the poor”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, “one of the most competent people to deal with economic matters”, was seized of the issue and measures were being taken address the issue.
Refuting criticism of the Left on the government’s failure to resolve agrarian issues and rising prices, Gandhi said the Congress was proud of what the UPA government was doing for the poor and for the country’s socio-economic growth.
“We are very proud of what we have done over the last four years and are still doing for the poor. The Rs.600 billion loan waiver, the national rural employment guarantee scheme and other programmes highlight the government’s priority to empower the poor, farmers and other less privileged people,” Gandhi noted.