Audit private firms utilizing public resources: Left

New Delhi: Four Left parties on Wednesday demanded audit of private companies that utilize public resources to deliver basic services.

The CPI, CPI-M, Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) also sought a universal public distribution system in the country. The demands were made in a statement while announcing nation-wide protests against rising food prices from Jan 15 to 31. The statement issued by the four Left parties expressed serious concern over "the crushing burden of price rise ... with food inflation reaching a record high of 20 percent. "The UPA government is adding fuel to the fire by continuously increasing the prices of petrol, diesel, LPG and CNG," it said. The Left parties demanded an end to increases in the prices of petroleum products, and restoration of the administrative price mechanism. They also came out against making the Aadhaar scheme mandatory for delivery of services and subsidies to the people. The statement followed a meeting of A.B. Bardhan and S. Sudhakar Reddy (Communist Party of India), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc), Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury (CPI-Marxist) and Abani Roy (RSP).