Thursday, July 20 2006 11:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Left parties yesterday (July 19,2006) lashed out at the Government for its 'failure' to check price hike and said they would raise the issue in Parliament, making it clear that their support to the Congress-led UPA coalition cannot be taken for granted.

Ending their three-day nationwide protests against rising inflation graph, the parties asked the government to reverse the amendments to the Essential Commodities Act, primarily carried out during the NDA regime, to control the rise in prices of essential commodities.

"Congress and price rise are old friends and it is a holy alliance. But the increase in prices of essential commodities are affecting the common man, whose cause it claims to champion," CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat said at a protest demonstration here.

She accused the UPA government of following the policies of NDA regime, which she said had brought down the number of items in the essential commodities list from 70 to 15, which had led to price rise in the country.

Addressing the gathering, CPI National Secretary D Raja asked the government to take steps to strengthen and streamline the Public Distribution System and put a stop to forward trading in food items.

"As far as food security is concerned, the UPA government has been a total failure. We will raise the issue of agrarian crisis, including suicides by farmers, food crisis, price rise and general economic conditions in the coming Monsoon Session of Parliament," he said.

The protests, earlier planned to be carried out for a week, were curtailed due to the Mumbai serial blasts.