NE NEWS SERVICE
GANDHINAGAR, MAR 4
The ruling BJP and the opposition Congress on Thursday engaged in a heated debate in the Gujarat Assembly over the rise in groundnut oil prices as the Congress claimed people were suffering because the government did not take timely action.
Defending the state government, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said the price of groundnut increased due to high exports and it eventually helped farmers in earning more.
To a question raised by Congress MLA Chandrika Bariya during Question Hour of the ongoing budget session, the state government admitted that the price of a 15-kg tin of groundnut oil has increased by Rs 739 in two years.
As against Rs 1,432 in January 2019, the price reached up to Rs 2,171 in December last year, the government said in a written reply.
The state government blamed the COVID-19 outbreak for a significant rise in the price after April 2020.
Senior Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar claimed, “Today, the price has gone up to Rs 2,500 for a 15-kg tin of groundnut oil. If groundnut production has increased, then the price of its oil should have come down. Instead, it went up because the BJP government did not take timely action.”
Bariya and other Congress legislators also claimed that while people were paying high prices for the oil, farmers did not receive the desired price for their groundnut produce.
In response, Patel said the Congress does not understand economics.
He also dismissed Congress’s allegation that the BJP government was going soft on oil millers.
“You don’t understand world economics. The export of groundnut increased after the COVID-19 outbreak. You just make allegations without doing proper research. Why is the Congress unhappy when farmers are earning more?” Patel asked.
Since farmers received high prices in the open market, not many opted to sell their groundnut produce at Minimum Support Price (MSP), the deputy chief minister said.
“If the Congress thinks oil millers are engaged in profiteering, then the opposition leaders can always file a complaint. Don’t blame the government for everything,” he said.
