Left, BJP corner govt on price rise

The Left and the BJP today tried to corner the government on the issue of spiralling prices and lent support to trade unions which have gathered here to protest against economic policies including disinvestment.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Tapan Kumar Sen (CPI-M) said trade unions were holding protests and demonstrations throughout the country against price rise, "inaction" of the government and "distorted" package to industry in the name of recession.

Sen said there was a complete strike by trade unions against merger of banks and "backdoor" move to privatise them through outsourcing. While the government has given exemption of over Rs four lakh crore to corporate groups, it was not willing to spend money on containing inflation, he said.

"There should be a complete reversal of policy direction and ban on speculative trade in commodities," he said, cautioning the government that if corrective measures were not taken, workers would be forced to take further action.

Supporting him and other the Left members, S S Ahluwalia (BJP) said trade unions have launched a movement and some of them were on dharna opposite Parliament House against price rise. He said while inflation was increasing, dearness allowance of workers was not commensurate and the government should intervene.

Earlier, in both the Houses the issue was jointly raised by opposition parties forcing repeated adjournments. While Lok Sabha had to be adjourned for the day, Rajya Sabha saw two adjournments during Question Hour.

Food inflation exceeding 17 per cent has disrupted household budgets. Government has attributed it to floods, droughts and also higher support price paid to farmers for commodities like sugarcane, rice and wheat.