SP, Cong stage walkout from UP Assembly on inflation

The Samajwadi Party and the Congress, on Wednesday, staged a walkout from the Uttar Pradesh state Assembly in Lucknow in protest against the state government's refusal to address the issue of rising prices.

Demanding a full debate on the issue, leader of opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary said that prices of all essential edible and non-edible items had increased in the past few years.

Chaudhary read out a comparative list of prices, including life-saving medicines, and cited their prices to prove his point. He said that the pandemic had worsened the situation and the rich were getting richer while the poor were getting poorer and the middle class was severely hit with job loss and pay cuts.

Congress legislature party leader Aradhana Mishra said that the biggest tragedy was the shocking increase in cremation rates during the second wave of the pandemic.

"The government should have taken steps to control the role of middlemen and check over pricing in the pandemic," she said.

State Minister for Agriculture Surya Pratap Shahi, while responding to the opposition claims, said that the government had given innumerable concessions and sops to the poor during the pandemic. He denied the increase in prices and said that the opposition was making an issue out of a non-issue.

The Speaker rejected the demand for a debate saying that several points raised by the opposition were beyond the purview of the state Assembly.

Meanwhile, the Yogi Adityanath government, on Wednesday, tabled a supplementary Budget of Rs 7301.5 crore.

Tabling the supplementary Budget, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna, said that the budgetary provisions include increase in remuneration for anganwadi workers and chowkidars. Funds have also been earmarked for parking facilities in Ayodhya, digital empowerment and Bundelkhand Expressway.