Chandigarh, January 25
The rich seem to remain unaffected, while welfare schemes like Atta-Dal Scheme seem to favour the poor in the times of spiralling prices. But it is the middle income group that is facing the heat from the rising prices.
Ask Shashi Sharma, a resident of Morinda in Ropar, who has started supplementing her family’s meagre earnings by taking tuitions at home. “Our family’s monthly income is around Rs 3,000. Because of the high prices of most items like sugar, pulses, wheat flour and milk, we have shifted from buying the monthly ration to buying food items on a daily need basis. We can no longer afford to buy monthly rations and have to cut back on the use of sugar, tea leaves and pulses - as their prices have hit through the roof. In fact, we are now resorting to buying pulses from the poor, who get it at the subsidised rates under Atta-Dal Scheme,” she rues.
In spite of government assurances of efforts being made to control the rising prices, most families in the region say that their household expenditure now constitutes over 90 per cent of their monthly budget. People in the region say that they can no longer have a planned expenditure, as prices continue to soar, while their incomes remain static. Sugar, which till last year was available for Rs 19 a kg, is now available at Rs 45 a kg. Pulses like arhar and urad are digging a hole in people’s pockets as these are available for Rs 90 and Rs 70 per kg. The price of tea leaves has zoomed to Rs 200 per kg, while wheat flour - the staple Punjabi diet - is available for Rs 17 a kg.
Satish Kumar, who runs a karyana store in Chunni Kalan near Fatehgarh Sahib, says that his business has been hit because of people buying less food items now. “Till last year, I had an average daily sale of Rs 7,000, which is now down to Rs 5,000 a day. People buy things only that are absolutely necessary, so total sales have been hit,” he says.
Though there has been some respite from the soaring prices, thanks to a slew of measures taken by the government over the past 10 days, it is restricted only to a few items like sugar, wheat flour and rice. The government has allowed processing of raw sugar imported by mills in Uttar Pradesh outside the
state and announced extension on import duty of sugar, which has helped sugar prices to come down marginally. By releasing more wheat and rice in the open market, rise in prices of the two grains have also been brought under control. The prices of pulses have, however, remained unchanged.
Usha Rani, an elderly middle aged housewife from Ludhiana says that the soaring prices of most food items have forced her to cut down on other important items like medicines. “We are a family of five, with a monthly income of Rs 10,000. With almost 90 per cent of the income going on food, there is no money left for buying my regular medicines,” she adds.
So, while the middle income group is facing the heat, the poor, who are covered under Atta-Dal Scheme, have remained largely unaffected. Rajinder Singh and his wife, Gauran Devi, of Chunni Kalan say that they have not been forced to cut down on food because they get these at subsidised rates under the scheme. “But we can no longer afford to have tea in this cold and it is only during a visit to a gurdwara that we have tea served in langar,” says Gauran, who works as a sweeper in a private
college
