NEW DELHI, Dec 17 — Expressing concern over the flooding of the Indian market with cheap Chinese goods, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, today said government was making efforts to prevent these products from capturing the market by hiking import duties.

“Chinese goods like toys, batteries, radios and televisions are cheaper as compared to Indian products as their prices are fixed keeping political reasons in view,” he told a delegation of the newly-elected Corporators from Lucknow which called on him.

Asking the people to adopt a “swadeshi” attitude and refrain from buying imported products, he said, “We can increase duty even by 300 per cent.... We have raised the duties for toys. But we cannot match the prices of goods.”

The Prime Minister said duty had been increased on the Chinese products to prevent them from capturing the market and that efforts were on to check their dumping. Since imports cannot be barred, an awareness would have to be created among the people on the “swadeshi” concept so that they reject foreign products, he said. But for this, Indian companies would have to match the quality of goods.

The Prime Minister said every individual would also have to contribute towards increasing India’s competitiveness in the world. Packaging was another key factor in drawing the people to buy Indian products, he said.

Mr Vajpayee maintained that he was not aware about what was in store in the next budget, but the “burden” was increasing.

“The country is self-sufficient in food and we are also considering their exports. The foreign exchange deposits are adequate,” Mr Vajpayee said, but added that there has been a shortfall in edible oil and cement.

Observing that the government was planning a major programme to augment the road network in the country since it was imperative for infrastructural development, he hoped that this would give a fillip to cement, steel and brick industry and the production of these items would go up.

Referring to the shortage of onions in October-November, 1998, which had cost the BJP dearly in that year’s assembly poll, he said the shortage had been created as part of a “conspiracy” to prevent onions from the western and southern parts of the country from reaching the northern parts.

Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Kahlon and his cavalcade escaped unhurt as the blast occurred few minutes after the minister and his caravan had passed the site where the explosive device was “planted.”

The Inspector General of Police (Border Range), Mr A.P. Pandey, had denied the use of RDX in the blast.

A team of Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Chandigarh, led by Mr S.K. Sharma had visited the spot on December 5 and collected the soil samples from there as the police and security agencies did not find any wire, fuse, splinters or any particle from the spot.

The report of the laboratory says that the intensity of the blast was very low but the sound of blast could be heard within a radius of 4 km.

Meanwhile, SSP Batala Sukhdev Singh Brar said a team jointly headed by SP (Operation) Vivek Mishra and DSP Parmadip Singh Teja had been constituted to investigate the matter.