The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) will collect 50,000 signatures in Andhra Pradesh against the steep price rise of the essential commodities, as part of a nationwide campaign to collect one crore signatures and meet the President to seek the President’s intervention on halting this trend.
The AIDWA has also called for a complete ban on liquor sales and has questioned the death of two persons in Repalle on Thursday allegedly after consuming branded liquor supplied by the State government.
At a press conference here on Saturday, AIDWA State secretary D. Rama Devi said that the Public Distribution System, which was very robust in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, had shrunk in size with only rice being delivered to the cardholders and the supply of sugar, dal, kerosene, and edible oil had totally stopped or was erratic. The worst hit were women, who were asked to register for a cash subsidy scheme for Direct Benefit Transfer (cash), and the price of the standard cylinder had gone up from ₹450 in 2014 to ₹1,150 this month.
