Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee has sought the cooperation of states in fighting price rise. Replying to the debate on the issue in the Rajya Sabha, Mr. Mukherjee asserted that it is the responsibility of both the Centre and States to deal with this problem. Rebutting the opposition allegations that the government is insensitive to the problems of common man, the Finance Minister gave the details of the steps taken by the Government to deal with the situation, particularly to protect the interests of the poor and vulnerable sections of the society. He conceded that the public distribution system is not effective and that is one of the reasons that the foodgrains supplied through this system could not reach to the desired sections. Mr. Mukherjee urged the states to further augment and decentralise the PDS to make it more effective. He said, fiscal deficit has to be controlled and admitted that the prices of petroleum products were revised keeping this fact in view of growing under recoveries of the oil marketing companies. Mr. Mukherjee said due to high international commodity prices, particularly in pulses and edible oils, the inflation of food items could not be brought down. This, he said, was compounded by drought in some parts of the country. Mr. Mukherjee said that the measures to control prices are now showing the results and the rate of inflation is coming down. He hailed the policies of the RBI in managing the economy, particularly in the backdrop of international financial crisis and sought the support of states in implementing goods and services tax. He asserted that the financial packages were infused in the system to sustain growth which also contributed to higher inflation. The Finance Minister announced release of 4.75 million tonnes of food grains for sale on food grain at 8.60 rupees per kg for the above poverty line population in states which don’t have and APL quota. 15 states will be benefited by it. He said that the quota being released will be made available to the BPL and Antyodaya card holders as well at the rates fixed for them. .The House later passed a resolution on controlling price rise, identical to that passed in the Lok Sabha a day earlier. He said that the government will look into the issue of the demand of banning future trading of some more commodity items. In his remarks after the reply by the Finance Minister, Leader of the Opposition in the House, Arun Jaitley alleged that the government has not come out with a clear cut policy on food management and addressing the issue of higher taxes on petroleum products. The House later passed the resolution which called upon the Government to take further effective action to contain inflationary pressures on the economy and its adverse impact on the common man. The Lok Sabha has already passed this resolution. AIR’s Parliamentary Correspondent reports that this is for the first time that the two Houses of Parliament have passed a resolution unanimously on the issue of containing inflation and its impact on common man.