Government sensitive towards rising prices: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday said the rising prices of essential commodities was a "byproduct" of global inflation and that his government was sensitive towards the issue. "I will be the last one to deny that the behaviour of food prices in the last one year is something which doesn't worry us. We have been worried... The house has my assurance that if any practical methods can further bring relief to our people our government will always be sensitive to the concerns of the house," Manmohan Singh said, speaking on the motion of thanks to President Pratibha Patil for her address to the joint session of parliament. Manmohan Singh's remarks infuriated opposition MPs who started shouting, briefly making the prime minister inaudible. This prompted the speaker to make pleas for peace after a brief commotion. Manmohan Singh said the rising prices of food items was "a byproduct" of global inflation on which "we had no control". "There is first the effect of international commodities prices which have gone up and India is no longer a closed economy.... In years of shortage we depend on import of sugar, pulses.... And when international prices of these commodities rise, I think there is inevitably an impact on our country," he said.