Demanding that the “ill-advised” move of the Centre to open up FDI in retail be reversed, Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa on Sunday announced that the state government will not allow the multi-brand global players, “as permitted under the new policy”, to set up their hyper markets in Tamil Nadu.
In a two-page statement, the chief minister said the fears of small retailers and distributors that the move will completely stifle them are not unfounded. She said the sudden decision of the Centre has come as a rude shock to the “millions of traditional retail vendors in the country”.
Terming the move as unprecedented, the chief minister criticised the UPA government for its “overweening arrogance” displayed through the announcement of a major policy decision affecting millions, without even consulting the state governments.
She said the Centre had stirred the proverbial hornet’s nest by making the announcement, ignoring the sentiments of the people.
The chief minister also called the Centre’s bluff by pointing out that world over wherever the local governments had opened up the retail sector, the prices have skyrocketed, instead of being curtailed. She said a series of policy blunders made by the UPA-led government had led to double-digit inflation which the Centre was now trying to bring down by opening up the retail sector.
“The Central government should realise that constraints on farm products, on the supply side, which is one of the contributory factors to food inflation, cannot be addressed through the FDI route, but only by squarely addressing the infrastructural constraints through appropriate policy support,” she said.