Callous govts paying no heed to plight of public

The poor and the middle class people are subjected to untold hardships due to the ever growing prices and taxes and mounting user charges. The government did not consider any concession in Income Tax for the salaried section, though it extended a lot of concessions and exemptions to the rich and the corporate section claiming it to be an act to save the production sector. Production did not improve but many small and medium sector firms closed down their operations for want of demand.

The cost of essential commodities is growing without proper reason. A vegetable vendor was claiming the Ukraine war as the reason for the increase in the cost of all vegetables. Anyone can increase cost for any reason or even without any reason. It looks like the field is open to all and does not have any control from any quarter. Cooking oil on average costs Rs 175, cooking gas cylinder is priced at Rs 1,150, Red gram at Rs 120 a kg, wheat at Rs 45 and rice at Rs 50. The prices of all these commodities were much less two years back.

Pandemic is casually blamed as a cause, which is not the case in fact. Corona not only took away the lives of lakhs due to lack of seriousness but it also took away the jobs of millions and left corers to face untold hardships and severe plight for livelihood. In such a situation any benevolent government is expected to come to the rescue of the vulnerable section. In fact it is this section that provides 95% of the workforce that provides 65% to the GDP of the nation.

But excepting offering 5kg of rice at free of cost nothing worth is done by the government. It is worth recollecting that when the people were plunged into the plight for their livelihood being stripped off jobs and denied wages, the government was fixing the cost for even vaccines.

But for the intervention of the Supreme Court the programme of free vaccine would not have materialised. These amply explain the callous attitude of the government over a serious condition in which people are plunged to face without any protective shield.

It is during this highly disturbed time the government at the Center has compelled the loan- seeking helpless States to implement reforms in power, education and civic bodies. This has resulted in the poor facing the likelihood of forgoing the privilege of free power and the other domestic consumers being subjected to bear with a steep hike in the cost of power.

The changes being brought about in education may bring down the expenditure but it is sure to see mounting drop outs and dip in quality of education. House tax is already increased, besides mounting user charges. Cost of petrol and diesel, which carry the potential of influencing the cost of everything, has been hiked to the tune of more than Rs 60 in a very short period. Following a public outcry, it was nominally reduced providing no tangible benefit.

The cost of cooking gas has gone beyond Rs 1,150 per domestic cylinder. When the demand is growing to do away with GST on medicines and medical devices to provide some relief to the ailing community, the government has allowed an increase in the cost of a wide range of medicines. When unemployment is touching an all time high in forty years the government has provoked the youth, anxiously awaiting employment, by introducing fixed term contract employment for four years in the defence sector smashing their hope for a bright future.

It is time the governments at the Center and in the States focus on the plight of the poor and the middle class and formulate their policies and programmes to relieve them from their woes. It is time to cure not just to dress the wound.

A G Rajmohan, Anantapur