Activists of Shivamogga District Congress Committee (SDCC) staged a protest in the city on Tuesday opposing the move by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre to withdraw subsidy for cooking gas used for household purposes.
Addressing the protest meet, P.V. Vishwanath, general secretary of SDCC and a member of Shivamogga City Corporation, said the statement issued by Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan in Parliament recently that the government would do away with the subsidy offered for cooking gas used for household purpose has created apprehension among families from middle and low income groups, who cannot afford non-subsidised LPG cylinders.
In July 2016, the government had directed oil companies to enhance the effective price of subsidised cylinders by ₹2 a month. Recently, the government asked oil companies to enhance the effective price by ₹4 a month. The policy of cutting the subsidy was detrimental to the interests of the families from low and middle income groups, he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mr. Vishwanath said that, on one hand the Centre is trying to provide access to LPG gas for poor families through the Pradhan Manrti Ujjwala Yojana and on the other, it was trying to withdraw the subsidy offered for cooking gas. It is palpable that the Centre has adopted a double-standard over the issue, he said.
Addressing the protest meet, chairman of Shivamogga Urban Development Authority Ismail Khan said that the prices of crude oil have recorded volatile movement in international market in recent times. After the withdrawal of subsidy, burden of any enhancement in the price of crude oil in international market will fall on the consumer directly. The withdrawal of subsidy would force poor families to to rely on firewood and dung cakes for cooking purposes. Research has proved that the smoke emitted from burning firewood and dung cake is detrimental to health.