Replying to the debate on President's address to the joint session of Parliament in both the houses, the prime minister said the duties had already been raised in some cases and if need arose, they could be further raised.

The prime minister also announced that he had called a meeting of the chief ministers to discuss the situation arising out of the commitments to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and said all steps would be taken to protect the farmers' interests while adhering to international obligations.

The prime minister also announced that the new state of Uttranchal would be accorded special status and a bill to this effect would be brought before the Parliament soon after the cabinet approved it. After prime minister's reply, the motion of thanks to the President was carried in both the houses.

In Rajya Sabha, however, the government suffered embarrassment as the amendment moved by senior Congress member Mr Pranab Mukherjee saying that the President's address did not have a mention of the decision to sell out profit-making public sector Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) to a private sector company, "whose track record is not known and of doubtful nature" was adopted by 103 votes to 64 votes.

During his reply, the prime minister sought consensus on reforms and asked the main opposition party Congress not to take any steps which might obstruct the path of growth and liberalisation.

Particularly dwelling on the problems of farmers, he said the government had taken many steps to improve their lot. There had been 24 per cent rise in the credit to agriculture sector, which had gone up from Rs 51000 crore to Rs 64000 crore, he said.

National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Credit (Nabard) had also lowered its interest rate from 11.5 per cent to 10.5 per cent, he said adding that so far 1.10 lakh credit cards had been issued to farmers and in the next three years, all farmers would get the cards.

The prime minister expressed concern at the situation prevailing in the power sector saying most of the state electricity boards were in red as over 40 per cent of power generation was being siphoned off and was not fetching any revenue.

Appreciating the Madhya Pradesh chief minister's initiative in this regard at the recent chief ministers' meeting, the prime minister appealed that the issue should not be politicised.

Mr Vajpayee criticised the Opposition for doubting the integrity of the government. "We welcome criticism as we learn from it. But there should be no doubt about our intentions, " he said.

Earlier, lashing out at the government in the Lok Sabha, the leader of Opposition Sonia Gandhi said the economy was in deep crisis and farmers and workers were facing problems. She said from 1994-97, the growth rate was between seven to eight per cent, now it was hardly six per cent. She described the promise of nine per cent growth in the President's address as "wild" and said even in the eighties, the growth rate was better than what it was in the National Democratic Alliance regime.

The President's address, she said, was silent on employment situation and labour laws had been changed in a haste.