Centre Leading Country to 'Starvation-like Situation', Says Congress Amid Slump in Consumer Demand

New Delhi: The Congress said Saturday there is a perception that the government is leading the country towards a "starvation-like situation", a day after an official survey reportedly pointed to a fall in consumer spending for the first time in four decades in 2017-18.

Friday morning, a media report cited the latest consumption expenditure survey by the National Statistical Office (NSO) to claim that consumer spending fell for the first time in more than four decades in 2017-18, primarily driven by slackening rural demand.

Friday evening, the Statistics and Programme Implementation Ministry said it has decided to not release the Consumer Expenditure Survey results of 2017-18 due to "data quality" issues.

KC Venugopal, general secretary (organization) of the Congress party told reporters, "We discussed (in a meeting) about the latest leak of an NSO report regarding the consumption of food items and consumption everything. This is very much shocking. Actually, there is a perception in the country that the government is leading to a starvation-like situation due to the bad policies of the government."

He was addressing the media after a meeting of party's general secretaries, chiefs of its frontal organisations, department heads, state unit chiefs and CLP leaders.

Venugopal said his party's district-level and state-level agitations against the Centre's "anti-people policies" would culminate in a "massive rally" at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on November 30.