The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday expressed concerns over the issue of food inflation, claiming that it has increased during the past decade under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime at the Centre.

Addressing a press conference here, senior AAP leader and Delhi Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj claimed that the rise in prices of essential food items pushed 85 crore people towards hunger making them dependent on the five kg of food grains given by the government.

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He said at a time when the general elections are going on in the country and the polling has been completed on almost half the seats and is due on half the seats, an assessment should be done on what was the impact on inflation during the 10 years during BJP’s regime.

Food inflation for March 2024 was about 8.5 per cent.

Bharadwaj further said that in 2014, India was at 99 among 125 countries in the world on the hunger index, and in 2023, today the country has fallen by 12 positions, and is at 111th position.

Drawing a comparison of inflation between 2011 to 2012 and 2022, Bharadwaj said during 2011-12, the average monthly expenditure in rural areas was Rs 1,430, which has increased to Rs 3,773 in 10 years by 2022-23, which he claimed is about 2.68 times more.

The average monthly expenditure in the urban areas has increased by 2.45 times, he said, adding that the per capita income of urban and rural combined has increased only 1.6 times. “So, it is obvious that when your expenses increase and your income does not increase, then hunger will spread among the people,” the AAP leader said.

He hit out at the Centre for providing 5 kg of foodgrains to everyone because it has finished employment, brought businesses to an end, and ended small-scale industries with demonetization.

Sharpening his attack on the BJP government, the AAP leader said, “You did not have any policy, due to which inflation increased.”