Cong-ruled states' CMs begin meet on price hike

New Delhi, Jul 5: In a bid to draw up an action plan to deal with rising prices of essential commodities, chief ministers of several Congress-ruled states gathered at a meeting convened by party president Sonia Gandhi at her residence here this morning.

The meeting is being attended by 12 out of 14 chief ministers of Congress-ruled states, according to sources.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, besides AICC general secretaries and Congress Working Committee (CWC) members in-charge of the states are attending the meeting.

The meeting comes a day after Ms Gandhi met the AICC general secretaries in-charge of the states and took inputs from them on the situation prevailing in the states following price rise.

Earlier, a meeting of the CWC, held on June 29, had expressed concern over the rising trend of prices of essential commodities wherein a suggestion was made by the members to convene a meeting of chief minister of Congress-ruled states to find a way out of the crisis arising out of the rising prices.

UNI