With inflation expected to cross the 11.7 per cent mark for the week ending June 21 and elections the political buzz all around, the government is preparing to unroll an awareness campaign to set the record straight with facts that have fallen casualty to political rhetoric.

At a price review meeting yesterday, Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar told department heads to ready media dockets and ads conveying the message that surging inflation in the country is largely the outcome of the global impact on the country’s economy and, what is more significant, is comparatively less than those prevailing the world over.

Chandrasekhar suggested that each department prepare a comparative statement for each product showing that its price rise here was less than in the rest of the world.

“Each ministry has to issue comparative price list, the trend over the last six months, and how it has been fuelled by external factors,” said a Food Ministry official who attended the meeting of Committee of Secretaries on Prices. The campaign will also highlight the series of steps taken by the government to hold the price line.

Citing an example, the official said that while wheat prices have risen by 200 per cent in global markets, in India the climb was 17 per cent in the last one year. Similarly, rice was priced 80 to 100 per cent higher than last year’s level the world-over while the increase was a mere seven per cent in the domestic market.

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