The district unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party staged a protest against the deregulation of petrol and the resultant hike in the prices of fuel.
A pot of water was placed on burning firewood to signify that it would soon be too expensive to buy fuel. Mangalore Mayor Rajani Dugganna said that when the price of crude oil decreased at the international level, the Government did not correspondingly reduce the fuel price but had hastened to increase when their prices had gone up in the international market.
Stating that Karnataka had been singled out, secretary of the district Mahila Morcha Sumana Sharan said, “The fuel prices in other States have not risen to the extent it has in Karnataka.”
The common man would be put to hardship even further, as even kerosene had not been spared from the price rise. Criticising the move to increase the price of kerosene by Rs. 3 a litre, Ms. Sharan said that the below poverty line cardholders would be badly hit by the price rise. The middle class too would be burdened further, she said.
Member of the district BJP committee Ratnakar Nayak urged the Government to ban trading of essential foodgrains.
“People earn lakhs of rupees through forward trading in essential commodities. Because of this, food grains are becoming too expensive,” he said.
