Shimla, Feb 27 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Agriculture Minister Raj Krishan Gaur today blamed the BJP for the rising prices of essential commodities in the country and said had the then NDA Government at the Centre not scrapped the Act preventing hoarding and black marketing, the prices would not have sky-rocketed.

Participating in the motion of thanks on the Governor's address to the House, he said the Act was an effective deterrent in preventing hoarding and black marketing of essential commodities and its scrapping was the biggest reason for the rising prices.

Mr Gaur said besides the BJP had also weakened the public distribution system (PDS) in the state following which the prices of essential commodities in the fair price shops were dearer than in the open market.

Observing that the party's manifesto has been made the policy document for fulfilling all the promises made to the electorate during the last assembly elections, he said that the state had taken giant strides on all fronts during the last four years.

He said besides increasing the wages of daily workers to Rs 75 from 70 from January one this year, the state GDP had registered a growth of 9.3 per cent, which was commendable.

The state's plan size has also grown to Rs 2,100 crore from Rs 1,600 crore and the state government had earmarked a sum of Rs 185.47 crore for the upliftment of SCs, STs and OBCs during the year, he said.

The Agriculture Minister said the BJP government's concern for the poor and the economically poor could be gauged from the fact that it had not once increased the wages of the daily workers during its five-year tenure from 1998 to 2003.

UNI