Congress MPs and other opposition parties’ MPs during a protest against inflation and the decision to increase GST on food items, near the Gandhi statue at Parliament complex, in New Delhi, Tuesday, (PTI)

What are the Opposition parties demanding from the government?

We want a discussion on price rise and hike in GST rates. We are not saying hold a discussion immediately, but entertain our notices and fix a day for discussion. But the government is running away.

Till when does the Opposition plan to continue the protests?

When the BJP was in Opposition, the late Arun Jaitley and their other leaders used to say that it was the responsibility of the government to ensure smooth functioning of the House. So, the onus is on the government.

The Congress had lined up several issues for discussion. You want a debate on all?

These are the issues that we have prioritised. We are not demanding discussion on these under rule 267. We have several other opport-unities and instruments for these. But the issue of price rise is important.

A Parliamentary Standing Committee has suggested use of CCTVs at fair price shops (FPS) to ensure effective distribution under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and also to check diversion.

Headed by TMC member Sudip Bandyopadhyay, the Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution has also recommended setting up more ‘Quality Control Cells’ to ensure sustained quality of the ‘Central Pool’ stock of foodgrains, right from procurement to distribution.

In its report tabled in Lok Sabha Tuesday, the panel said it was surprised that, despite a joint inspection of the foodgrains stock in FCI godowns and presence of QCCs in the Department of Food and Public Distribution, many beneficiaries “complained of getting inferior quality foodgrains.”