New Delhi

Demanding immediate steps to curb price rise, the four Left parties today staged demonstrations across the country during which chiefs of CPI-M and CPI Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan courted arrest here on Thursday.

Senior CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury said the Left along with other like-minded parties will try and block the passage of the Union budget in Parliament if urgent steps were not taken to control spiralling prices. "In that case the government may even fall," Yechury warned, as he courted arrest in Thane, near Mumbai.

Tens of thousands of slogan-shouting activists carrying party flags took to the streets and organised mass picketing including in the Capital as part of a nation-wide 'jail bharo' agitation to protest the government's "failure" to check rising prices of essential commodities.

Besides Karat and Bardhan, D Raja (CPI) and Abani Roy (RSP) were among those who courted arrest after a massive demonstration by the Left parties in New Delhi.

CPI-M Politburo member Sitaram Yechury courted arrest in Thane, near Mumbai, while his colleague Brinda Karat was held in Patna.

Functioning of some central government offices were affected in the Left-ruled states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura since the demonstrators squatted in front of the premises.

In New Delhi, a group of activists tried to enter the Parliament Street Police Station and police had to use water cannons to disperse them.

Shouting slogans against the government, the activists gathered at Jantar Mantar this morning.

CPI(M) had earlier announced that it plans to mobilise around 25 lakh people across the country for the 'jail bharo' agitation against price rise.

Mumbai

Hundreds of workers and leaders of the Left parties held demonstrations and courted arrest across Maharashtra today to protest soaring prices of essential commodities and threatened to intensify their agitation if the Centre failed to rein in inflation.

CPI-M Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, who led the protest in Dahanu in neighbouring Thane district, demanded that the government roll back the hike in fuel prices as it had resulted in escalation in prices of items of daily use.

"The rise in petroleum prices has had a cascading effect on inflation. The government must roll back the fuel price hike to control inflation and price rise, which hits the common man most," he demanded while addressing Left supporters and workers.

Yechury said the Left parties, along with other like-minded parties will try and block the passage of the Union budget if urgent steps were not taken to control galloping prices. "In that case the government may even fall," he warned.

Yechury with scores of Left workers and supporters later courted arrest.

Similar protest demonstrations and 'Jail Bharo' agitations were launched at different places here including Parel Naka and Andheri West Railway Station.

Thiruvananthapuram

In Kerala, LDF activists staged demonstrations before Central Government offices. Agitators squatted in front of select BSNL and Post Offices in Thiruvananthapuram and raised slogans against the 'wrong economic policies' of the UPA Governemnt.

As the demonstrations started in the morning, the functioning of these offices were affected, police said.

"The rise in petroleum prices has had a cascading effect on inflation. The government must roll back the fuel price hike to control inflation and price rise, which hits the common man most," Yechury demanded addressing Left supporters in Dahanu in Thane district

Patna

In Patna, CPI-M leaders Brinda Karat and Atul Kumar Anjan were arrested for blocking roads.

Karat and Anjan were leading a procession which blocked the busy Dakbungalow roundabout here creating serious traffic problems, police said. They were arrested and taken to a camp jail at Gardanibagh.

Vijaywada

CPI and CPM today jointly protested the spiralling prices of essential commodities by staging a huge jail bharo andolan at the Sub-Collector's Office.

The leaders of these two parties criticised the both Central and State Government's failure in curbing prices.

They said the government has failed to supply essential commodities through public distribution system to protect the poor from the raising prices.

CPI's former MLAs K Subba Raju, Nasarvali, CPM's city Secretary R Raghu and CPM Municipal Corporation floor leader Ch Babu Rao and others participated in this mass programme

Later the police arrested the leaders of the both parties and released them.

Bhubaneswar

Workers and leaders of Left parties today staged demonstrations and courted arrest across Orissa protesting rise in prices of essential commodities as part of their country-wide agitation against the UPA government at the Centre.

Leaders of CPI-M, CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP criticised the economic policy of the UPA and threatened to intensify their agitation if the Centre failed to take concrete steps to check inflation.

Demanding steps to provide jobs to the unemployed and strengthen public distribution system, CPI's state secretary Dibakar Nayak claimed that a large number of party workers courted arrest while proceeding towards Raj Bhavan here.

CPI-M state secretary Janaran Pati claimed that about 15,000 party workers courted arrest in different places of Orissa during today's protest action.

The Left leaders demanded that the Central government roll back the hike in fuel prices as it had resulted in escalation in prices of items of daily use.

Demonstrations and 'jail bharo' agitation were held in Cuttack, Berhampur, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Khurda, Puri, Nayagarh, Baripada, Sundargarh and many other places.

Left workers courted arrest while demonstrating near the offices of district collectors, post offices and on national highways, sources said.

Srinagar

CPI-M activists today staged protest demonstrations in Jammu and Srinagar against price rise and unemployment as part of party's nationwide agitation today.

Carrying banners and placards, protests were staged by in front of Raj Bhavan in Jammu and Partap Park in the heart of Srinagar this afternoon.

M Y Tarigami, state Secretary of the party, addressing protesters in Jammu, said prices of essential commodities like food items have risen disproportionately putting common man, working class and low-income group to grave hardships.

He emphasised on implementation of universalisation of Public Distribution System instead of existing targeted PDS which denies availability of ration items to majority of the population.

Tarigami said the employment policy announced by the state government is inadequate to tackle the menace of rising unemployment problem and procedure for providing unemployment allowance is complicated and limited to only to a small section of youth.