New Delhi:The Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Friday discussed the spiraling price rise at a meeting, after the Congress
President Sonia Gandhi declared it a matter of 'high concern'. Gandhi presided over the meeting, which was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance
Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A K Antony, Health Minister Ghulam
Nabi Azad and party general secretaries. This was the first meeting in the New
Year, which was aimed at dealing with the issue of food inflation. The meeting
was deemed significant as it is being held a day before a Chief Ministers conference
convened by Dr. Singh. The meeting was also being held just three weeks before
the presentation of the General Budget. Congress party has faced flak from various
opposition parties over the rising prices of essential commodities. The wholesale
price index rose 7.3 percent in December from a year earlier, its highest since
November 2008, and accelerated from a 4.8 percent gain in November. The rise
was
driven by near 20 percent jump in food prices, which rose on weak monsoon rains
and flooding in parts of the country, but inflation in manufacturing products
picked up to 5.2 percent from four percent in November, a sign that inflationary
pressures were spreading to other sectors of the economy. Sugar, in particular,
has been a problem, with Congress party caught in the middle of competing demands
from consumers who want lower prices while cane farmers seek higher prices for
their produce. The supply situation deteriorated further in recent months when
Uttar Pradesh, seeking to help cane farmers, banned processing raw sugar, jamming
750,000 tonnes of raw sugar at ports.
