The Congress-led government came under attack from the opposition in the Lok Sabha Wednesday over raging inflation.

Raising the issue during zero hour, BJP deputy leader in Lok Sabha V.K. Malhotra said everyone was affected by the rising prices of essential commodities in the last six months.

He said inflation had crossed the eight percent mark and would soon touch the two-digit mark.

"The previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had successfully contained inflation within five percent," he pointed out.

"People are finding it difficult to run their households," he said, condemning the steep hike in water tariff effected by the Delhi government Tuesday.

The BJP MPs later walked out of the house on the issue to join an anti-government rally not far away.

Samajwadi Party member Mohan Singh demanded a rollback on prices of petroleum products, which he said had pushed up the prices of all essential commodities.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which extends support to the government from outside, too joined the opposition chorus on the issue.

The CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta said the government decision to hike the prices of petroleum products was unilateral and deserved to be strongly condemned.

Demanding a rollback, he suggested that the government look at alternative ways of raising resources to meet the burden of increasing international crude prices.

"People are spending up to Rs.2.5 billion for a wedding, why not tax them?" he asked. He said that petroleum companies should reduce prices of fuel by reducing their profit margin.

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader K. Yerran Naidu too joined the debate.

--Indo-Asian News Service