On June 5, 1956, the committee set up to protest against the price rise and fight famine organised a rally at Wellington Square. This was the its first mass programme. The Assembly unanimously adopted a proposal by which the government was asked to provide good quality rice at Rs. 17.50 per maund in Calcutta and its suburbs, open an optimum number of fair price shops, and to ensure supply of rice at Rs.10 per maund in the outer areas. Dr S Bandopadhyay, the PSP leader, presided over that rally. I was also one of the speakers. The others who spoke were Hemanta Bose, Jatin Chakraborty and Nihar Mukherjee. The general feeling at the rally was that the people's lives had become unbearable because of the steep hike in prices of essential commodities and despite the Five Year Plan, there had been no let-up in the problem. We also insisted that foodstocks be salvaged from hoarders and distributed among the people at a low cost.

Another meeting was held at the Hazra Park in Calcutta on June 16. At a rally at Harowa Chapatala in the Sunderban area on June 13, I said that the government’s selfish policy was responsible for the inflation. I also said that a continuous and unified movement was necessary to stop the farmers from being evicted from their land and that a proper irrigation system was the need of the hour.

More than 10,000 workers and labourers took out a rally to the Assembly on July 9. When the procession neared the premises, I requested the then food minister Prafulla Chandra Sen to meet the people. I remembered that there were many among them who had walked close to 30 miles to reach the Assembly. The minister not only rejected this but ridiculed the people by saying that he did not understand how hungry people could possibly walk all those many miles! The Opposition immediately reacted to this and asked the minister to withdraw his remark. We staged a walkout after he refused to do so. However, replying to a question of our legislator, Dr Narayan Roy, in the Assembly on July 12, the food minister conceded that there had been a rise of 22.2 per cent rise in the price of rice in West Bengal.

I must mention a significant incident during that month. As we all know, the people of West Bengal had not been satisfied with the recommendations of the states reorganisation commission, On July 7, the Left parties called for a joint strike which was total.