GUWAHATI: Price rise is likely to be a major poll issue in Assam. In almost all middle-class households, this is a common complaint. As successive governments have failed to address unemployment, the next best thing the people seem to be hoping for is a government that can arrest this rise.
For homemaker Bobita Thakuria (55), the “unusual surge” in the prices of pulses and mustard oil is unimaginable. Her husband Hemanta Baruah runs a retail shop, and the income from that feeds the family of four. She prepares the household budget and says that a 95% hike in prices of the most used kitchen commodities will compel even “apolitical homemakers” to think politically while voting.
“Five years ago, we used to buy mustard oil in Guwahati for around Rs 80 per litre. But today, it costs Rs 155. Is this a joke?” she said. Showing a near-empty jar, she said that buying healthy pulses for her senior citizen mother is difficult. “Pulses cost Rs 80 per kilo in the retail market. Five years ago, the cost was Rs 55-60. What a change!” Thakuria said.
Nisrita Konwar from Lakhimpur district is an anganwadi worker frustrated at the promises made by successive governments to curb price rise. She hopes that the political parties will come up with a pragmatic solution to end hoarding and artificial hike in prices done by middlemen.
But it is motorists who have been complaining the most. Company executive Ratul Pathak travels about 40km from his home in Baihata Chariali to his workplace in Guwahati every day. Petrol prices have gone up from around Rs 65 per litre five years ago to Rs 87 now. “They should bring it down to at least Rs 70 per litre. Right now, it’s nearing Rs 90 again,” Pathak said.
Opposition parties don’t have a magic formula to slash prices. But the Congress has sensed the anger on the ground and has promised to provide relief from rising prices. Akhil Gogoi’s Raijor Dal is also picking up price rise as a poll issue. Most of the party candidates will contest on a cooking gas cylinder icon and have highlighted rising prices of kitchen commodities.