Southern States
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Tamil Nadu
Raising price is no remedy: Chidambaram
By Our Special Correspondent
CHENNAI, NOV. 30. Merely increasing the prices of all commodities and levying additional taxes will not solve Tamil Nadu's financial crisis, the former Union Finance Minister and Congress Jananayaka Peravai leader, Mr. P. Chidambaram, said here today.
In a statement, he held the successive governments of the last 20 years responsible for the crisis. Instead of just putting up the prices, the State Government must come up with a long-term fiscal policy.
It was not clear whether the Government believed in structural reforms. It had to spell out its economic policy to state which were the sectors and functions the Government would directly deal with and which activities should be privatised.
Adverting to the ruling party's stand that this dose of `bitter medicine' was inevitable now, Mr. Chidambram said the drug would be accepted by the people if the ``doctor was good and had properly diagnosed the disease''.
The CPI and the CPI(M), in a joint statement, announced that they would launch all forms of agitations to force the Government to withdraw the hike. The CPI State secretary, Mr. R. Nallakannu, and the CPI(M) State secretary, Mr. N. Sankaraiah, requested people to raise their voice against the `assault' on people.
Mr. K. Palanichamy, CPI MLA, turned against the ruling party, and demanded convening of the Assembly before the proposals were given effect to.
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