Price rise unites all Opposition against UPA

New Delhi: It's an issue which has brought together the Left and the Right and even the firecest of adversaries. Rising prices have united the entire Opposition against UPA on the eve of Parliament session. While the Government insists it's only trying to help the farmers, it is being cornered on fixing the price of sugarcane.

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav called on Rashtriya Lok Dal president Ajit Singh on the eve of the Parliament session seeking a better deal for sugarcane farmers, a better price for their crop than that has been fixed by the Centre.

"We will stall the bill in the Rajya Sabha," is what Ajit Singh told Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The bone of contention is an ordinance promulgated by the Centre last month to amend the Essential Commodities Act and the Sugarcane Control Order. It is a change which will have to be vetted by Parliament in the Winter Session replacing the conventional Statutary Minimum Price mechanism with a new regime called Fair and Remunerative Price.

Earlier, over and above the SMP, state governments would fix the State Advisory Price which the sugar factory owners were suppose to bear the Fair and Remunerative Price. The onus has now been put on the state governments to bear this burden, something which they are unwilling to shoulder.

BJP President, Rajnath Singh said, "Both the state governments and the Union Government are responsible for this situation."

CPM leader, Sitaram Yechury said, "We are with the other Opposition parties on this issue. Why should there be an ordinance just before session?"

On Thursday, when Parliament meets, the issue would be heard both inside and outside the House even as thousands of sugarcane growers from adjoining western Uttar Pradesh plan to march to Parliament.

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