LDF workers stage dharna against hike in prices of food items

, Jul 25: CPI(M) led LDF Opposition workers today staged a dharna before the Secretariat here, demanding that the Centre and State governments check rise in prices of essential commodities. Inaugurating the agitation, CPI(M) veteran and leader of Opposition in the Assembly, V S Achuthanandan criticised the economic policies of both the NDA government led by Narendra Modi and

led UDF government in

.

"Both the Modi and Chandy governments are responsible for the spurt in prices of food items', he said, adding LDF would intensify its agitation in the coming days. Terming the rise in prices as 'war on people', he said the policies pursued by the NDA are totally against the interests of the common man.

Alleging that the NDA government has ignored Kerala, Achuthanandan said the Railway budget had not considered any of the state's long-pending demands. In the general budget also, the state was neglected, he said, adding Kerala's dream scheme like All India Institute of Medical Sciences was not sanctioned.

"The common man's life has become strenuous due to increase in prices of commodities. The price of one kg rice which was Rs 21 a few months back has jumped to Rs 40 to Rs 45. Similar is the case with prices of vegetables," he added. Achuthanandan also took a dig at Chandy, saying he had no time to intervene in matters related to the people, but was mainly engaged in the excercise of cabinet reshuffle.

The CPI(M) leader made it clear that government cannot 'hoodwink' the people with this action. Several LDF MLA's were among those who participated in the dharna.

PTI