Poor worst affected by price rise, says PM

Admitting that poor people are the worst hit due to rising food prices, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday said the government is making every effort to control inflation, which has been over 10 per cent for last several months.

Admitting that poor people are the worst hit due to rising food prices, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday said the government is making every effort to control inflation, which has been over 10 per cent for last several months.

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"It is the poor who are the worst affected by rising prices, especially when the prices of commodities of every day use like foodgrains, pulses, vegetables increase ... We are making every possible effort to tackle the problem ...," Singh said on the 63rd anniversary of Independence Day.

The food inflation was at 11.40 per cent during the week ended July 31, 2010, while the overall inflation was 10.55 per cent in June this year.

It is for this reason that the government has endeavoured to minimise the burden of increased prices on the poor, he said, while exuding confidence that "we will succeed in these efforts."

Although Singh took pride in offering high support prices to farmers since 2004, he said that this also resulted in increased food prices in the open market.

He, however, defended the recent hike in petroleum prices saying India imports nearly 80 per cent of its requirement and the subsidy was increasing every year.

"If this had not been done, it would not have been possible for our budget to bear the burden of subsidy and our programmes for education, health and employment of the poor would have been adversely affected," Singh said.