NDA forms human chain, stalls Parliament on price rise

New Delhi, Apr 24 (UNI) NDA's Prime Ministerial nominee L K Advani today described the rising prices of essential commodities as a ''silent tsunami'' as the Opposition MPs formed a human chain around Parliament and later stalled the proceedings of the two Houses protesting against the government's ''abject failure'' to check inflation.

''The poorest sections of Indian society are finding their very right to life threatened,'' with even basic food items becoming unaffordable and the fruits of economic growth bypassing the common people, Mr Advani said in a statement.

The Congress-led UPA government, which would complete four years in office next month, had failed on all fronts. However, its failure was ''most glaring'' in an area that affected the common man the most on a daily basis -- the prices of essential commodities and services.

The family budgets of not only the poor but even the middle class had been badly eroded by the steep rise in the prices of cereals, pulses, vegetables, edible oil, sugar, milk, fruits and meat, Mr Advani said.

This had forced the poor, whose nutritional intake was already at precariously low levels, to consume less food. At the same time, several food items had either vanished or their consumption had been drastically scaled down in middle-class households.

''Thus, crores of Indian families are now groaning under the crisis of food security, owing to the total and abject failure of the UPA government to anticipate, plan and check inflationary pressures in the economy,'' the BJP leader said.

MORE UNI SN RR BD1245