The opposition on Friday protested the late Thursday-night decision to increase the prices of petrol and diesel; calling it arbitrary and yet another manifestation of the Modi Government’s disconnect with the people and their problems.
Reacting to the decision of public sector oil marketing companies to hike the retail selling price of petrol and diesel by Rs. 3.96 a litre and Rs. 2.37 respectively, Congress media in-charge Randeep Surjewala said, “This is another anti-people step reflecting a disconnect with people-oriented governance.”
The Government, he added, was profiteering at the cost of the gullible farmer and common man instead of adjusting excise and customs duty revenue which is leading to an accrual of additional Rs. 90,000 crore.
“We demand rollback of this massive increase at a time when the common man is already reeling under unprecedented inflation.”
Condemning the “massive hike”, the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) noted that this would “lead to the cascading of the inflationary spiral imposing unprecedented burdens on the working people once again in a big way”. The CPI (M) also urged people to protest against this latest imposition of burden on their livelihood.
The CPI national secretary D. Raja accused the Government of asking the oil marketing companies to hike diesel and petrol prices “arbitrarily”; adding that the Government was completely oblivious to the problems of the common man.
