Political parties, including the Left and BJP, today came down heavily on the government for striking “another blow” on the common man by hiking the fuel prices and staged demonstrations in many parts of the country demanding its immediate rollback.
Slamming the government for the hike, the Left parties asked all their units to immediately conduct hartals, demonstrations and other protest actions.
The CPI(M), CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc said it was “another cruel blow” to the common people as the increase in diesel price would raise the transportation cost and affect farmers, while those in kerosene and LPG cylinders would burden the poor.
The CPI National Secretary, Mr D. Raja, accused the government of kneeling down before market forces and corporate houses and demanded immediate rollback of prices.
The Union Government had yesterday increased the diesel price by Rs 3 per litre, domestic LPG by Rs 50 per cylinder and kerosene by Rs 2 per litre.
In the national capital, BJP activists marched towards Parliament but were prevented by police who resorted to use of water canons to disperse the protesters.
The activists tried to jump the barricade and march towards Parliament but the police, who were deployed in large numbers, prevented them. When the protesters did not stop, the police resorted to use of water canons.
Chanting slogans against the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, the UPA President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, and the Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dikshit, they alleged that the price rise has broken the back of common man. The activists also courted arrest.
The ruling SAD in Punjab and the main Opposition INLD in Haryana slammed the Centre for effecting “hefty and unwarranted” hike in fuel prices, terming the decision as “anti-people” and demanded a rollback.
The Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and SAD President, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, said the UPA Government “deliberately hastened the oil price hike as it feared that crashing crude prices every day would leave no justification for diesel, kerosene and LPG price hike.”
He said the price hike would have direct bearing on farmers besides having a cascading effect on inflation.
The INLD secretary general, Mr Ajay Singh Chautala, criticised the move by saying: “The step has once again exposed the anti-people face of the Congress. The hike would further increase inflation and common man would be directly affected.”
Terming the price hike as an act of “economic terrorism’’, the BJP unit in Jalandhar accused the Union Government of trying to benefit oil marketing companies at the cost of the common man.
In Jammu, Shiv Sena activists holding gas cylinders, kerosene stoves and earthen stoves staged a demonstration against the hike. Over 200 Sena activists led by the J-K Shiv Sena unit President, Mr Ashok Gupta, also raised anti-UPA slogans.
“The price rise in the past has already hit the financial backbone of the common man,” Mr Gupta said, adding that the government should roll back the price.
In Kerala, Left parties and BJP staged demonstrations to protest against the hike while private bus operators threatened to organise a one-day strike on June 29.
Workers of CPI-M’s youth wing DYFI blocked a passenger train at Kannur as part of their state-wide protest against the hike. BJP workers took out marches in the state capital and other centres condemning the price increase.
Criticising the move, the JDS chief, Mr H.D. Deve Gowda, alleged that the Centre’s action in reducing the excise and customs duty was done to benefit oil companies.
“When the prices of petroleum products remained stable at $90 per barrel in the international market in the last four or five months, where is the need for going in for price hike?” the former Prime Minister asked.