Left-NDA walk out over price rise; Govt to contain inflation

New Delhi, May 17 (UNI) The Left parties, supported by the NDA and the TDP, today staged a walk-out in the Lok Sabha, blaming the ''wrong policies'' of the UPA Government for the galloping price rise.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who was replying to the debate on price rise, was interrupted several times by the Left party members.

They said the Finance Minister was justifying the price rise by citing detailed reasons for it.

Before Mr Chidambaram could come to the steps being taken by the Government to contain inflation, the Left party members staged a walk-out.

After sometime, they were joined by the TDP, the SP and later by the NDA members.

The Minister said efforts were being made to bring down the inflation rate to 4.5-5.0 per cent, which was at present moderated at 5.6 per cent.

The Government, he said, was taking fiscal and monetary measures, besides steps to augment the supply of essential commodities such as wheat, pulses, sugar and edible oils whose shortage was the prime reason for the price rise.

He said the States had been been asked to lift the allocated essential commodities and distribute to the public distribution system (PDS) to make them available to people at prices lower than the market rates.

But he rued that only seven States-- Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala, Gujarat and Delhi-- had responded to the de-hoarding measures.

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