Patna, Dec 22 : Former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi held a protest demonstration against the State government for its failure to check rising prices.

Hundreds of activists belonging to different political parties protested in front of the Bihar Legislative Assembly.

Rabri Devi accused the Nitish Kumar government of failing to check rising prices.

"The government should stop black-marketing of food commodities. He (Nitish Kumar) is encouraging businessmen and the black marketers and is anti-poor. The people of Bihar are seeing this and the leaders of Bihar are looking at this and demanding action against the rising prices," she said.

Meanwhile, Sharavan Kumar, the convener of Janata Dal (United) said that if it was the state government''s duty to check rising prices, why was New Delhi also facing a similar problem.

"If the prices are high in Bihar. I would like to know why are they high in Maharashtra and Delhi. Congress is ruling in two-thirds of the states, and if the state government was responsible for the price hike, then prices should not have been high in Delhi," Kumar claimed.

Heavy rainfall and floods this year has hurt summer crops and pushed up food prices. India''s annual wholesale price inflation was 1.34 percent in October, but the benign numbers just reflect the high base effect of prices a year ago, and hide the real rise in prices of food articles. The WPI has already risen over 6 percent from the beginning of the 2009-10 financial years that started in April.

Economists have said inflation could rise to as much as eight percent by the end of the financial year -- above the central bank''s perceived comfort zone of around five percent. (ANI)