The Centre will hold a meeting with Chief Ministers on 27th of January on the issue of surging prices of essential commodities, which continued to be costly, despite the food inflation easing a bit. The meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. Earlier, the states had demanded such a meeting to devise a combined strategy to bring down the rising food prices. The Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that the states are not lifting food stocks allotted to them for the purpose of public distribution system at satisfactory level. The meeting assumes importance as food prices continued to be high, even as their rate of rise has come down during the recent weeks.