The opposition leaders are expected to meet at Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge's office in the Parliament complex around 10 am, sources said.
As no untoward incident was reported, the curfew, imposed on January 31 following violence in the town, was relaxed for two hours on Friday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party will launch a one-day jail bharo agitation on Friday across the country during which party leaders and workers will court arrest to protest against the hike in prices of essential commodities and petrol products.
The Congress vice president had put out a tweet on Tuesday carrying erroneous percentages to depict a rise in the prices of essential commodities in a graphic and asked the prime minister whether his government was 'for the rich'.
The interbank foreign exchange, call money as well as major essential commodities markets like sugar, edible oils, cotton, metals and bullion will remain officially closed on Wednesday on the occasion of Gudi Padwa.
"Strict action will be taken as per the law," Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said in Ambala, responding to a question about the incident.
While prices of essential commodities have touched astronomical figures, water supply in the city has also been affected.
As a result of demand due to upcoming festivals, inflation has taken several essentials like spices, edible oil and milk out of the common man's reach, Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said.
The retail prices of essential food items have fallen by up to 11 per cent in Mumbai and Delhi in the first fortnight of April, much to the relief of millions in these metros who had to shell out 40 per cent more in the last one year.The rates have come down within two weeks of government's price control measures, reversing the trend of spiralling prices.
Top Left leaders Prakash Karat (Communist Party of India-Marxist), A B Bardhan (Communist Party of India), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc) and Abani Roy (Revolutionary Socialist Party), led the demonstration near Parliament House.
Admitting that inflation posed a serious threat to the growth momentum affecting the poor and vulnerable sections, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday favoured waiving mandi, octroi and local taxes, which impede the smooth movement of essential commodities.
The state of Bihar will now monitor the public distribution system (PDS) through laptops to check corruption and to provide help to those living below poverty line (BPL), to get their monthly quota of essential commodities including food grain and kerosene oil, officials said.
Speaking to mediapersons in Lucknow, he said, "There is no mechanism with the central government to curb the rising price of vegetables including onion; that can be done by the state governments."
Food inflation rose to 18.32 per cent for the week ended December 25, because of rise in prices of food items like onion, milk and meat.
Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Sunday clarified that the government has no plans to bring back the recently repealed farm laws, and urged farmers to be wary of 'confusion' being created by the Congress on this issue.
The Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday termed as misleading the announcement of implementation of food security scheme by the city government and said it will meet the same fate as other schemes like Rajiv Ratna Awas yojna, Annashri yojna and Antyodaya yojna.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to present a populist Railway Budget on February 24, leaving passenger fares untouched but rationalising the freight rates keeping the essential commodities aside.
As a result of the government's policies, 'some big trading companies as well as hoarders are making huge profits while the income of common people is being looted through high prices,' the party's Politburo said.
They want fare subsidies for only those below the poverty line, daily wage earners, senior citizens and students.
The Supreme Court-appointed panel on the new agri laws on Thursday started its consultation process and interacted with 10 farmer organisations from eight states, including Uttar Pradesh.
The restrictions under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure are in place since lockdown began.
"We would conduct the rally on some different day," Bhartiya Kisan Union Rakesh Tikait said.
Majority of the respondents said that they have been falling behind financially and their standard of living has deteriorated.
Flaying the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the centre, and holding it responsible for the unabated price rise, BSP leaders made it a point to stress that, "none other than Mayawati can bring down the prices in the country."
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Tikait said the farmers are ready to talk with the government on the farm laws but made it clear that the discussions should be held without conditions.
Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan sought to shift the blame on states saying they are equally responsible for keeping the prices of essential commodities under control
Mukherjee said the high inflationary pressure, specially in food and some non-food articles, existed in other emerging economies also.
The minister recalled the steps taken by the government to deal with general inflation, which was in the negative zone in June-August, 2009, and had since risen to 9.9 per cent in March, 2010.
In the Upper House of Parliament, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu did not allow adjournment notices moved by opposition members on the issue of price rise, prompting members of the Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the Left parties, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Nationalist Congress Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Shiv Sena to create an uproar.
The government on Monday exempted importers of pulses from stock limits, and also relaxed the norms for millers and wholesalers, in view of softening of prices of the key pulses in the country. Now, the stock limits will be applicable only on tur, urad, gram and masoor for a period up to October 31, it said. However, these entities will continue to declare their stocks on the web portal of the Department of Consumer Affairs, it added. A revised order in this regard has been notified.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday demanded that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government publish a 'White Paper' on rising prices of essential commodities that crippled lives of the middle class and the poor in the country.
Following a Manipuri delegation's appeal Anna Hazare may involve himself in finding a solution to the state's problems, reports A Ganesh Nadar from Pune
In an informal discussion with rediff.com late on Thursday evening, Kolkata-based economist Abhirup Sarkar discussed this burning issue.
Terming the government's move to hike petrol prices as "callous", the CPI(M) on Friday demanded immediate roll back of the hike and restoration of the administrative regulation of petrol pricing.
The central government on Wednesday expressed concern over high food inflation, which is nearing 20 per cent, and asked states to lift more wheat and rice stocks from its pool -- a move that will help increase foodgrain availability and eventually ease prices.
Food inflation, according to the data released earlier in the day, further rose to 19.95 per cent for the week ended December 5.
Strongly rebutting the charges, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said the Gulf countries are deeply committed to friendly relations with India and they are even seeking bilateral talks on the post-COVID-19 economic recovery. Talking about India's close and traditional ties with the Arab countries, he said New Delhi is ensuring uninterrupted supply of food and essential commodities to the region during Ramzan as part of its deep-rooted friendship.
In a two-pronged strategy, the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Saturday attacked the Congress on its economic policies and the Bharatiya Janata Party for practising 'majority communalism' and claimed that it has taken remedial steps to overcome the defeat of the party in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The Communist Party of India - Marxist has analysed the reasons for the 'reverses' it suffered in West Bengal and Kerala in the last Lok Sabha elections and also 'identified'
The monsoon session of Parliament, scheduled to begin on July 26, is expected to be a stormy one with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Opposition seeking to pin down the Centre on issues like the hike in fuel prices and essential commodities, and Foreign Minister SM Krishna's Pakistan visit.
