Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has asked the Food and Civil Supply department to ensure a strict monitoring mechanism to check the price rise of essential commodities and asked the department to involve the common people in the process of fixing the price of essential commodities.
Sonowal said this on Friday after holding a review meeting with all the top bureaucrats of all the departments in the state and said that it is the foremost duty of the department to ensure that the people of the state do not have to bear the additional burden in the form of price rise of essential commodities.
The Chief Minister, who took charge as the new Chief Minister of Assam only about two weeks back, also took stock of the implementation of National Food Security Act in Assam, which is benefitting 2.5 crore people at present.
“There must be a strong mechanism to check the price rise of essential commodities. The people of the state, particularly the economically weaker section including those in tea gardens and char areas should not bear the burden of price rise of essential commodities,” he said while adding that the department should involve the people in the process of fixation of price of the commodities to instill confidence among the people.
“The people of the state should be regularly informed about the price of particular food stuff in its place of production and in the market. They should also be intimated about the prices of the same food stuff in other places of the country,” he said. The Chief Minister also instructed the officials to interact with the whole sale and retail traders involving the common people so that the prices of the essential commodities remain stable in the state for the benefit of common people.
It may be mentioned here that the new BJP led government in Assam took oath of office and secrecy on May 25 this year. The new government which had a liability of Rs. 10,000 crore, has been stressing on generation of revenues from internal resources of the state to strengthen state exchequer and asked the departments to cut on unnecessary expenditure.