Ridiculing the UPA government, he said: 'It calls itself 'aam admi's' (common man's)government. But 30 crore people in the country are hungry. Why is there a food scarcity? Why is the production of rice and pulses going down? Why are prices escalating? What is the central government doing?'

Tracing the cause of the price rise to forward trading and hoarding of rice and pulses, Bhattacharjee said despite repeated demands from Left parties, the centre had not done anything to arrest it.

'And as a result, prices have soared northwards. If the whole country is on fire, can West Bengal stay unaffected?' he asked.

The chief minister said the Left Front government was trying to provide rice, pulses, potato, edible oil and sugar to the people at reasonable rates.