Over 100 Congress members took part in the bicycle rally taken out from the Morhabadi ground to the state Congress office opposite the Ranchi University, covering a distance of over 2km. They were protesting against the rising fuel and LPG prices.
Over 100 Congress members took part in the bicycle rally taken out from the Morhabadi ground to the state Congress office opposite the Ranchi University, covering a distance of over 2km. They were protesting against the rising fuel and LPG prices.
Addressing the gathering, the party’s national spokesperson, Gaurav Vallabh, claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi government has given a new definition of the GDP. “For the Union government, GDP means increasing the prices of essential commodities like ‘Gas, Diesel and Petrol’ used by the common man to fill its coffers. We all know that GDP stands for gross domestic product, a barometer to assess a country’s growth but the Centre has damaged it in the last six years due to its faulty policies,” he said.
He also said, “Crores of people have lost their jobs amid the pandemic while those with jobs had their salaries cut and now on top of that, they have to deal with the price hike. The government is saying that price hikes, mainly of fuel, isn’t in their control. If the government can’t give jobs, control price rise, provide relief to farmers, then why is it in power?”
Vallabh, who was the party’s candidate from the Jamshedpur (East) constituency during the 2019 assembly polls, further said in April 2014, the crude oil price was $108 per barrel and petrol price per litre was Rs 71.51. “Now when the crude oil price is $64 per barrel, the petrol price has touched Rs 90 per litre. When crude oil price has reduced by 41%, how has the per-litre price for the end consumer gone up by 27%? The government is looting the common man by increasing excise duties. The Centre should rename the petrol pumps as Modi tax collection centres,” he said.
He claimed that there has been an 800% and 250% hike in excise duty on diesel and petrol, respectively, ever since the BJP government came to power in 2014. “In April 2014, during the UPA-II government, the excise duty for petrol was Rs 9.48, which today is Rs 32.98. For diesel, it was Rs 3.56 and now, it is Rs 31.83. We demand that the excise duty be brought down to 2014 levels and only then the prices of petrol and diesel can immediately come down by Rs 23 and Rs 28, respectively,” he said.
He added that the Modi government has not done anything to boost domestic production. “He has only destroyed India’s PSUs, like ONGC for instance, by reducing their budgets for oil explorations,” Vallabh claimed.
Meanwhile, the Congress workers said their campaign against price hike will be intensified within the next few days across Jharkhand. The party has announced a two-day protest campaign across the state on Friday and Saturday.
The two ruling grand alliance partners – JMM and RJD – are also reportedly working out plans to intensify their protests against the Centre by adopting other innovative modes of agitation both inside and outside the Jharkhand assembly, which will host a nearly month-long Budget session starting from Friday.
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