GUWAHATI, August 20: Amid rise in the prices of daily essentials, the Assam government on Friday sought to defend itself, stating that “relief can be provided to the COVID-affected sections but there was very little it could do to regulate prices of items procured from outside the state.”
“We have to procure certain items of daily use from suppliers outside the state and if the rates are high at the source, then there is very little the government can do to regulate them. But the state government is helping affected people by providing relief packages,” chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday to a question regarding inflation hitting the common man.
The past couple of months have seen a periodic rise in the rates of fuel, LPG cylinders, edible oil and other food and daily-use items, affecting almost all sections of people amid the pandemic-triggered restrictions.
However, the chief minister announced that the monthly benefit under the Orunodoi scheme has been raised from Rs 830 to Rs 1000 with immediate effect.
“The Cabinet, in a bid to reach out to the COVID-hit sections, also decided to provide Rs 10,000 to drivers and handymen and Rs 15,000 to priests of temples and namghars as one-time relief. A similar package for street vendors will be announced soon,” Sarma said.
In regard to the pre-poll promise of waiver of microfinance loans, the chief minister said that MoU would be signed with microfinance companies.
“The Reserve Bank of India meanwhile has given statutory clearance in this regard,” he added.
Appointment letters were distributed at a programme here by the chief minister to the next of kin of the police personnel who were martyred while safeguarding the constitutional boundary of Assam at Lailapur along the Assam-Mizoram border in Cachar district.