The UPA government on Thursday tried to partly deflect criticism for rising food prices towards the Opposition as well as on factors outside its control. Failure of foodgrain procurement by NDA-governed states and international food crisis, it claimed in Rajya Sabha, were to blame for the prices even as Left joined the Opposition in staging a walkout. Taking up the issue of inadequate foodgrain stock raised by some of Opposition members, food and public distribution minister Sharad Pawar tried to shift the blame onto NDA-ruled states for their failure to procure foodgrain as per the requirement. He said the foodgrain stock had slumped in the last few years because of fall in procurement and pointed out that in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat, wheat procurement was far below expectation. Also trying to take on the Left, he said that West Bengal had seen a bumper potato harvest and NAFED could intervene to purchase the crop from the market if the state government allowed it to do so. Reiterating his point that the onus was more on the states than the Centre on food prices and an "artificially' created scarcity