With Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha refusing to yield to their demand -- the Opposition members received unexpected support from a ruling combine member Prabhunath Singh (Samata Party) -- of rolling back the increase in the price of urea, the entire opposition, barring a few Independents, staged a walkout shouting, ``Kisan virodhi niti nahin chalegi, nahin chalegi''.

The pressure on the Government to withdraw the hike in urea prices mounted today with its own ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal, voicing its protest.Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal met Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee this afternoon with a request to withdraw the price hike.

Theissue was raised in two phases in the Lok Sabha this afternoon -- first, after zero hour began and then in the post-adjournment session. The Finance Minister's reply to the points raised by various opposition members during zero hour created a furore in the House, forcing Speaker G M C Balayogi to adjourn the day's proceedings at 1.10 pm.

Citing the irregularities in the petrol price hike, Ajit Jogi (Congress) said ``never before'' in the country's history had such a thing occurred. Quoting newspaper reports, he said each consumer had been charged an additional Rs 4 instead of Re 1. ``Crores of rupees were taken from them in the process,'' he asserted, adding, ``the Finance Minister should ensure either this money is refunded to consumers or used to create a consumers' welfare fund.''

His contention was supported by K Rosaiah (Congress), S Jaipal Reddy (Janata Dal) and A C Jose (Congress). Observing that the Government stood condemned, Reddy argued that vehicle-owners lost a total of Rs 500 crore bypaying the extra charge.

Former Speaker Balram Jakhar drew the chair's attention to the plight of the farmers, as proved by the ``spate of suicides across the country'' and requested the Finance Minister to withdraw the urea price hike.

Sinha began his reply by recounting the popular proverb: ``People who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others.'' All hell broke lose after this, with the entire opposition accusing him of behaving in an irresponsible manner.

Amid the din, the Finance Minister continued with his reply. He reminded the Congressmen that in 1991, the then finance minister, Manmohan Singh, had increased the price of urea by a whopping 42 per cent. ``Faced with protests from all around, he reduced the price within 20 days. Did the Government refund the money collected from the farmers during this period ?'' he asked.

According to him, a similar hike was effected by the Congress Government in 1994. Turning towards S Jaipal Reddy, he said the United Front Government, of which hewas a minister, had increased the price of urea by 10 per cent a week before last year's budget.

By now, the treasury benches were also on their feet. With pandemonium reigning supreme, the Speaker adjourned the House for 50 minutes. The matter was raised again after the break by senior Congress leader P Shiv Shankar. Accusing the Finance Minister of being ``arrogant and emotional,'' he pointed out that the former had not addressed the real issues. ``We expect him to apologise for his misbehaviour,'' he said.

With treasury benches backing him to the hilt, Sinha replied that he had not misbehaved with anyone. ``But if anyone's sentiments have been hurt, I apologise to him,'' he said.

He assured the House that extra money charged from petrol consumers would be transferred to the corpus being created for improving the condition of national highways.

ULCA repeal opposed

Sixty-four members of Parliament belonging to both houses have in a memorandum to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee protestedagainst the repeal of the Urban Land Ceiling & Regulation Act. This would have very adverse effect on low and middle income groups in cities and town.