Coming down heavily on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA government for bad governance and flawed economic policies, BJP national president Nitin Gadkari on Sunday demanded an immediate ban on forward and futures trading in essential commodities to check price rise.
Detailing the failures of UPA-2 in the last one year, Mr Gadkari said, “The Congress promised to control prices of essential commodities in 100 days whereas the prices have increased by 100 per cent. The Prime Minister promised double digit growth rate, but the country witnessed double digit inflation.”
In the commodities exchange, forward trading resulted in only 0.3 per cent actual delivery and 99.7 per cent of transactions ended in speculation and manipulation. “Wheat, sugar, cotton, oils and may other items are artificially managed to profit middlemen and hoarders. Forward trading ends in 99.7 per cent speculation and price rise. But still the UPA is not imposing a ban because it has interests in that,” charged Mr Gadkari.
He alleged that during the 55 years of Congress rule, the rural economy was not given priority which resulted in large-scale exodus of youth to cities.
“Are they coming to live in the slums of Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai? Is this called welfare state?” demanded Mr Gadkari.
While banks are giving loans at 5 per cent interest rate for buying a Mercedes Benz car, farmers are finding it difficult to get loans to buy tractors, Mr Gadkari said.