Leaders of the Bangladesher Samajtantrk Dal (BSD-Khaleque) said yesterday that the agricultural production in the country would face a serious crisis for price hike of kerosene and diesel. It would also rise in prices of all other products and transport fare multiplying the cost of living.

Speaking at a public rally at Muktangan, the BSD leaders said that the BNP-Jamaat alliance government had created a waveof price hike as the prices of essential commodities including rice and pulses registered a continuous rise while the cost of fuel and transport and natural gas was doubled since it assumed power.

They called upon the left-democratic forces to launch a united movement against to compel the government reduce prices of essentials including oil-gas refraining it from signing anti-state contract with Indian industrial giant Tata.

The BSD organised the rally demanding withdrawal of enhanced prices of oil, gas and transport fares as well as what it said a halt to conspiracy to export natural gas in the name of investment of Tata in the country.

Central committee leader of BSD Mubinul Haider Chowdhury and its Dhaka City co-ordinator Bazlur Rashid Feroze addressed the rally.

Meanwhile, speaking at a public rally yesterday, leaders of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) said that the BNP-Jamaat alliance government had failed terribly to contain price hike of essentials which had caused a suffocating situation for the masses across the country.

Organised as part of its central programme at Poura Library premises in Narayanganj protesting price hike of essentials, the CPB leaders said that the government constituted with the support of the killers and collaborators of 1971 was running the state at the dictates of imperialist organisations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

They stressed the need for united resistance from the masses to combat imperialism and the free market economy.

Organised by Narayanganj District committee with Abdul Hye Sharif in the chair, the rally was also addressed by Zia Haider Dipty, Rabindranath Das and Hafizul Islam. Later, a procession was brought out in the town from the rally venue.