Congress leaders ride bicycles to protest against fuel price hike
Hike in fuel prices open extortionist looting of the common man during Covid-19 crisis: Bhalla/Sawhney
Jammu: Maintaining social distancing and mask-wearing, contingent of Congress leaders and cadres on Friday staged a cycle protest rally against the steep hike in petrol and diesel prices by the Central government.“The protest on 5th consecutive day in Jammu is a part of INC nationwide protest against increasing petrol and diesel prices by state-run oil marketing firms due to increasing in excise duty by the central government at a time when crude oil is trading at its lowest price the world over,”. The protest was organized by Jatinder Singh Chib Block 11 Bahu, Gandhi Nagar and Surinder Singh Dutt Block 12, Trikuta Nagar and joined by senior leaders led by former Minister and Senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla, Distt President Yogesh Sawhney, JKPCC Chief Spokesman Ravinder Sharma, JKPCC General Secretary Manmohan Singh, Kamal Singh Jamwal Corporator, Vandana Makhnotra, Suman Choudhary, KL Gupta, Aman Bawa, Inderjeet Kour, Rajinder Singh Randhawa, Dr Ramankant Khujariay, Varinder Singh Manhas , Uttam Singh , Vijay Chib, Latish Sharma Chanchal Popli, Dewan chand, Gagan Bral, Kuldeep Kumar, Ramesh Kumar, Sahil Sangotra, Shivani Devi Raj Kumar, Harvinder Kour, GS Sodhi, Parasram, Yashpal, Ravi, Sahil Langeh, Happy Randhawa, Jatin Vashisht, Goutam Kumar, Sahil Savotra, Gopal Sharma, Bunty Anju Kumari, Munna, Gurcharan Singh, KS Arora, Kewal Verma, Dr Vijay Sharma, Rakesh Meenia, Daya Ram, Lajju Ram, Tarsem Kumar ,Tarlochan Singh Azad, Variender Sharma, Dilawar Singh Makhan , Chetan , Raju Saini, Lucky Warne, Chanchal Singh, Aman Choudhary, Poppy Chib, Deepak Sethi, Firan Kohli, Dishant Kohli, Nadeem Choudhary, Sonu Choudhary, Charandeep Singh,, Jaswinder Jassi, Rajinder Poppy, Narinder Sharma happy beside others.Carrying placards raised slogans against BJP Govt but was stopped by heavy deployment of police while moving towards Div Com office. However they submitted a memorandum to Additional Development Commissioner demanding rollback of hiked prices of fuels.
Senior Congress leader Bhalla, Yogesh Sawhney along with others rode a bicycle to protest against the rising fuel prices. Speaking on the occasion, Bhalla said that the ruling BJP sees coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to earn money.”Today, when people are getting infected with COVID-19, inflation is increasing and people are facing hunger, the Central government has increased excise duty on petrol and diesel many folds,” he said.”As PM says, opportunity in disaster, for them (Centre) corona disaster is an opportunity to earn the money,” he added. He said despite people expressing resentment from a bullock and camel cart rallies to leaders riding bicycles against the fuel prices hike hurting the poor and the middle-class adversely, but govt has not shown any concern.
On the contrary, the government has claimed that the fuel prices have risen because of increase in international crude prices but Bhalla said that the Centre has artificially kept the prices high by not lowering the special excise duty imposed when the international crude prices fell to US $ 30 dollars in March this year. Shamefully Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has, however, justified the increase saying that the money was needed for providing relief to the poor suffering because of COVID pandemic which he claimed were hurting the middle-class and the poor, whose incomes have dried up due to COVID 19. “Despite having a full stock of fuel, the government has burdened the common people by increasing fuel prices continuously for the last 20 days. Such a steep hike has not been seen in 70 years,” Bhalla said.
Speaking on the occasion, Yogesh Sawhney said that PM called himself Janta ka chowkidar, but the oil companies have been making profits and the PM has failed to provide any relief to the people,” he said, asking what the Centre has done with Rs 18 lakh crore earned by hiking the excise duty on fuel in the past six years. He said it was because of the “faulty” Centre government policies that for the first time in the country’s history prices of diesel was higher than that of petrol.“The country’s GDP has hit the bottom. It is the lowest in 6 years and unemployment is on the rise. Still, fuel prices have been increased,” said Sawhney. “The crude oil had mounted to $125 a barrel during the UPA government, but the government under the leadership of the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could keep the diesel-petrol prices under control. Today the crude oil prices have dropped to $50 a barrel, regardless of which the prices are scaling new high every day,” he said. The Central government must control petrol and diesel prices. On one hand, people are already distressed with Covid-19 and now this further price rise is staring in peoples’ face.
Speaking on the occasion, JKPCC Chief Spokesman Ravinder Sharma said the hike in the price of fuel has affected life and livelihood across India. The Modi government has failed again,” he said. He said the enhanced tax on petrol or diesel is like the taxes that cruel Mughal and British rulers imposed on Indians. “The then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had made a policy that diesel prices would always be kept lower to petrol. And all the Prime Ministers–be it Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Atal Behari Vajpayee or Manhoman Singh–followed it. But, Modi government has overturned that policy,” he said. He termed the increase in the prices of petrol and diesel as “unjust” and “thoughtless”, and urged the Central government to roll back the increase with immediate effect and pass on the benefit of low oil prices directly to the people. Around 70% of diesel is used by the farming and transportation sector. The unprecedented rise in diesel prices will lead to a significant increase in prices of different goods and the common man will bear the brunt,” he said. Sharma further said the crude oil prices were under control but the Centre was hell-bent on increasing fuel prices without taking people’s financial condition into consideration.
Manmohan Singh in his address said tractor, an instrument of change that brought about the green revolution, has become a cart for farmers as they cannot afford the high prices of diesel.”The Centre should applaud the work done by the farmers amid the COVID-crisis, instead, the BJP has passed anti-farmer ordinances,” Singh said. The Modi government was fooling the farmers when it said that farmers’ income will be doubled. Singh further said businesses had been badly affected due to Covid-19 over the past three months but the government of India had hiked petrol and diesel prices instead of helping the citizens.“The hike in diesel prices will directly affect farmers, who are already under debt, during the paddy season,” he said.
