One step forward and three steps back

Common man in Tamilnadu is shell shocked hearing the news of the a steep increase of prices on few of the basic necessities of life such as Milk, power and local bus tariff. A liter of toned standard milk has gone up from Rs17.80 to Rs 26.00, Half Kg Butter from Rs 100.00 to Rs 150.00, Electricity charges up by 30 % and so forth with immediate effect ie 18^th Nov 2011. In addition to the announced increases the ripple effect of the weakening Indian Rupee is seen in the increase of fuel prices thereby increasing the cost of transportation of good is passed on to the end consumer…common man. These increases does have a serious impact on the household budgets of the people and with no increase in the income of the family only way these additional expenses could be met by reducing the consumption of all the affected products. 

Today I heard an interesting conversation between three persons in a tea shop and the topic was the increase in costs as announced yesterday and it goes like this

First person: such a steep increase by Jayalalitha’s government is not correct especially on milk and bus travel and because of this my child will not be given milk at night

Second person: yes what you say is correct…the increase should have been done gradually over a period of time so that we would have got some breathing space.

First person: even if it was gradual what is the use as our salaries remain stationary for years together.

Third person: yes if the salaries are also increased then we would be able to still afford the increased costs without sacrificing the necessities of our children and also ourselves. But then dreaming of salary increase is a waste since it would never happen in private companies.

Second person: we made a mistake by electing AIADMK since Karunanidhi would never have passed such a bill for steep increase as he is more caring about the welfare of the people. I am sure that this party will not retain its power in the next election

First person: Well we have a long wait ahead of us because Amma has just come to power and god only knows what else she is going to do further to make more money for themselves.

Being educated I do know that any government would look for various means of reducing their budget deficit but then spread the increase on to various items instead of increasing price of few items so drastically. Well we are all in for much more cost increases in the coming days with spiraling oil cost due to weakening Indian currency  and I hope that we would be able to provide the basic necessities to our children for their growth and studies ……….most families would have to forego something else to take care of the needs of children. For a common man it is now “One step forward and three steps backward” instead of “two steps forward and one step back”. We are sure going to see a definite change in the society because of the inflation in near future!!! 

God help the common man for he is the worst affected for the rich will still continue their lifestyle without flinching about the increases and the people below poverty level are not used to such luxuries so would not care either way.