The Opposition parties are unanimous in condemning the increase in petrol prices with all leaders demanding immediate rollback to avoid any further burden on the common people. They held protest demonstrations and dharnas to convey their dissatisfaction over the latest steep price hike.
The leaders of the Telugu Desam Party, the CPI, CPM and the YSR Congress Party deplored that the oil companies were showing no accountability to the people as they had increased prices of petrol nearly four times so far in this year alone. The government was showing utter disregard to the fact that the fuel price hike was indirectly leading to unchecked price rise by way of its impact on the prices of essential commodities and so on, they said.
TDP district president Devineni Umamaheswara Rao said the Congress party would have to pay a heavy price for its indifference to the plight of the people in the wake of increased fuel prices and the rising costs of living all over.
He said their party would create awareness among the people about the injustice being done by the Centre with regard to the fuel prices. He demanded that the hike be withdrawn immediately and abstain from any such measures in future.
Effigy burnt
Party leaders burnt an effigy of Central government protesting the hike with all important leaders from the district participating in it on its office premises on the M.G. Road in the city.
CPI city unit secretary K. Subba Raju led the party activists in organising a human chain and protest demonstration at Lenin Centre.
Addressing the party workers and people on the occasion, he said the oil companies in the country were indiscriminately increasing the fuel prices in the name of depreciation of rupee and increasing prices of crude oil in the international market. “But these companies are not reciprocating the same when rupee recovered or international crude prices are reduced.
This is highly objectionable,” he said.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) district committee secretary V. Umamaheswara Rao lamented that the oil companies had “looted” the people in the district to a tune of Rs. 250 crore by increasing the fuel prices so far this year.
He took objection to an oil company's statement that the price was hiked by Rs. 1.80 per litre because of the increase in international crude prices. The YSR Congress Party city leader Devireddy Ravindranath Reddy blamed the Congress-led alliance at the Centre for the repeated hikes in petrol prices.
He criticised the Union government for not trying to curb the oil company but simply giving green signal for fuel price hike without considering the problems of the people.
