Leaders of the Left parties, viz the CPI(M), CPI, AIFB and RSP, met in New Delhi on January 7, 2014, and issued the following statement. THE Left parties express serious concern over the crushing burden of price rise which is affecting all sections of the people. There is no respite in the upwards spiral of prices of food items and essential commodities, with food inflation reaching a record high of 20 per cent. The UPA government is adding fuel to the fire by continuously increasing the prices of petrol, diesel, LPG and CNG. The Left parties decided to conduct a protest campaign against price rise with the following demands: 1) Stop increase in the prices of petroleum products, Restore the administrative price mechanism. 2) No to Adadhar linkage being made mandatory for delivery of services and subsidies to the people. 3) End hoarding and speculation of essential commodities and conduct a de-hoarding campaign. 4) No privatisation of basic services; conduct audit of those private companies utilising public resources and delivering basic services. 5) Ensure universal public distribution system. The Left parties called upon all its state units to conduct the anti-price rise agitation between January 15 and 31. The meeting was attend by A B Bardhan, Prakash Karat, S Sudhakar Reddy, Debabrata Biswas, Sitaram Yechury and Abani Roy.