Noted RTI activist Akhil Gogoi has threatened to launch a mass movement against the alarming increase in prices of construction materials over the past three months in Assam.
Mr Gogoi, who heads the organisation Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), told reporters, “If the BJP-led government in the state did not take steps to rollback prices of construction materials, he would launch an agitation.”
The KMSS hit out at three leading cement companies for selling their products at exorbitant prices. “Cement manufacturing companies have increased the prices of cement bags up to Rs 370. At the same time, they are supplying cement at rates between Rs 210 and Rs 280 to companies, which are engaged in the Central government works,” said Mr Gogoi adding that in West Bengal and Bihar the same cement costs around Rs 100 less per bag.
Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal met the representatives of 25 cement firms and asked them to control prices.
According to a KMSS survey, the price of a cubic metre of sand has gone up from Rs 1,300 to Rs 1,600. 2,500 pieces of bricks would cost Rs 15,000 about three months ago, now they are Rs 19,000, he added. He described the entire issue as a planned conspiracy of some business syndicates.
Referring that the BJP government will soon complete 100 days in office, Mr Gogoi said, “If we do not see any steps to arrest prices within the 100th day of this government, we will start an agitation.”
He also regretted that important Central schemes like the National Food Security Act, rural job scheme and the construction of embankments on the Brahmaputra and its tributaries are not being executed properly.
