Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: Dispur has directed all district commissioners (DCs) to strengthen their mechanisms to strictly monitor the rise in prices.
Various organizations, including the All Assam Students’ Union, raised their voice against the rise in prices of essential commodities in the state. Some of the organizations even warned the government against taking to the streets.
Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma reviewed the mechanism to monitor prices of essential commodities in the state. He directed the officials to take strict measures to ensure market stability and prevent any abnormal rise in prices.
After the meeting, Dispur directed the commissioner-led district monitoring committees to convene their meetings within four days, besides holding weekly review meetings between DCs, chambers, and trade bodies.
Dispur also instructed the district commissioners to ensure that all retailers and wholesalers display lists of prices of all commodities, besides carrying out intensive field-level monitoring to detect and prevent unusual price escalation. The instruction includes the cancellation of trade licenses for unscrupulous retailers and wholesalers if they charge abnormal prices.
On LPG cylinder distribution, Dispur told the district commissioners to quickly link PM UJJWALA beneficiaries’ Aadhaar numbers to prevent duplicate LPG cylinder distributions.
All districts have monitoring committees to monitor the rise in prices. However, usually, such committees remain inactive, and they wake up from their slumber as and when Dispur issues stern orders. It’s not new that such committees hold meetings, raid markets and take action against a few traders. Over time, everything returns to its original state. It is imperative on the part of Dispur to keep the district monitoring committees active round the year.
Circles concerned in trade said that most of the essential commodities come to Assam from outside, and hence, when prices go up at sources, the rise in prices in Assam is automatic. With the rise in fuel prices, the prices of other commodities will rise due to the increase in transportation costs. Most essential commodities are transported to Assam by trucks. A few unscrupulous traders might have taken advantage of the situation, they said.
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