As you must be aware, over 57 commodities have been brought under the purview of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. The Commissioner of Civil Supplies also keeps under close watch prices and supplies of twenty important commodities like food-grains, edible oils, sugar, kerosene, matches, cycle tyres and tubes, soaps, drugs, etc. A formal price control is exercised by the Government on some selected commodities, and a few other commodities are under informal price control. In some cases steps have also been taken to initiate action against profiteers, hoarders and speculators under the provisions of the Internal Security Act, 1971.
I have dwelt at some length on the measures taken so far by the Government to meet the challenge of price increases. But in any enlightened democracy, the legislative and punitive action to deal with a problem is only one, though an important, aspect. The other equally important facet is building up public opinion and creation of public sanctions against certain malpractices. We have organisations and voluntary institutions to safeguard the interests of organised labour, large-scale industry, small-scale industry, and various categories of Government and public sector employees. There are also organisations to protect the interests of individual industries, but it is unfortunate that there are no organisations to safeguard the interests of consumers. And ultimately, everyone in the society is a consumer. And amongst the consumers it is those in lower income groups and fixed salaried groups who suffer the most by any persistant increase in prices. It is this view which prompted me to make a plea in Parliament and outside for building up a well-organised, well-conceived consumer resistance movement.
As I see it, this movement will have to be supplementary to what is being done by the Government to counter price increases. It cannot be an alternative or a substitute to Governmental action and responsibility. Only this kind of concerted attack on the problem can yield fruitful results. I would also plead that the movement should be constructive in character and non-political in approach. To be effective it will have to be organised area-wise and in some cases industry-wise. It can very well study the genuine problems faced by industries supplying important consumer and essential goods and essential raw materials. In larger towns and metropolitan cities, voluntary organisations can be set up ward-wise. The wholesalers and retailers of the area can also be usefully associated with the deliberations to make them parties to the decisions and the approach of such organisations.