Heated exchange of words in assembly over high price of rice and vegetable and poor quality of rice given in ration shop

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, August 31, 2026

The last day of monsoon session of Tripura assembly today saw hilarious but heated exchanges between veteran Congress MLA Gopal Roy and ministers Sushanta Chowdhury and Ratan Lal Nath . While speaking in the assembly Gopal Roy raised the issue of price rise and said that earlier he used to purchase ‘Aram’ variety of rice at Rs 1150.00 per 26 kg sack but now the same is selling at Rs 1750.00 per 26 kg per sack. “You people may not have any problem over price rise but I and many others like me do have ; hence steps must be taken to reduce the price” said Gopal.

Rising to furnish a reply to this the minister for food and civil supply Sushanta Chowdhury said that the prices have risen at the place of origin or production of the rice and there is nothing he can do about this . He also added that he had held meetings with the principal secretary and director of the food department as well as SDMs in this matter but rise of prices at source can not be contained from here . Gopal then raised the question of poor quality rice being sold from ration shops and to this Sushanta replied thar rice given through ration shops is supplied by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and they have already been informed of the matter. “But I will see that you get your ‘Aram’ variety of rice as much as you want” said Sushanta.

This was followed by another bout of exchange between Gopal Roy and Ratan Lal Nath. Gopal Roy raised the issue of high prices of vegetables in the market. Rising his feet Ratan Lal Nath asked “ why does your heart burn over high prices of vegetables ; our farmers are gaining by this”. But Gopal Roy did not relent and said ‘you people may not have any problem over high prices because you get every thing free but I do have’. But then Ratan Lal Nath said that he is a farmer and sympathetic to farmers . When Gopal Roy tried to raise another supplementary question , Ratan Lal shouted at him ‘sit down , sit down in your place we know what your are going to say again’. Gopal Roy had no other option but to sit down.

Meanwhile sources in the market said that the rise in the prices of rice as well as vegetables was due to hoarding by wholesalers and artificial crisis created by them. “The important point here is that the ordinary farmers do not benefit from the high price , it is the middle men and brokers and the blood sucker wholesalers who gain from high prices created by artificial crisis” said sources.

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