Kolkata, May 31 (PTI) Left Front chairman Biman Bose on Tuesday claimed that job loss and unemployment rates are at "48-year high in the country" amid rising prices of essential goods, including food items.

Addressing a protest rally of 15 Left and associate parties at Esplanade, he said that the TMC government in West Bengal was also not doing its bit in giving relief to people by controlling the prices of fuel n other goods.

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"We are witnessing the highest-ever unemployment and joblessness rate in the country in the past-47-48 years," Bose said.

He, however, did not cite any source of the information he shared.

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The programme in the city was a culmination of week-long agitations in various districts of West Bengal from May 25 to 30 over price rise of commodities, he said.

Bose sought to know what the state government agencies had been doing to maintain control over the rates of food and other items and provide succour to people.

"The state government is not doing its part to keep a check on prices,” Bose alleged.

Hitting out at the BJP-led Centre, CPI(M) politburo member Surjya Kanta Mishra said that the BJP-led central government was “whimsically” selling off public assets. "Banks, insurance and railways are public assets and cannot be sold off at the whims of anybody," he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)