Chennai/Kolkata/Kochi/New Delhi, Sep 14 : DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi today hit out at the UPA
government saying his party was not consulted before hiking diesel price and cutting LPG subsidy.Karunanidhi demanded immediate rollback of diesel price hike.
In Kolkata, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee also demanded rollback of diesel price hike, but stopped short of withdrawing support to the UPA government at the Centre. ‘We do not want this government to fall', she said.
Even Congress chief minister from Kerala Oommen Chandy today demanded partial rollback of diesel price hike, which he said, was very steep.
In Kochi, Chandi said the Centre should have avoided the hike in diesel prices and demanded at least a partial withdrawal of the increase.
Chandy, who belong to the Congress and heads the UDF government in the state, said here that, “If it is difficult to completely roll back the increase, the Centre should at least reduce the hike.”
Both the Congress-led UDF Government as well as CPI(M)-led LDF opposition combine in Kerala said the hike could lead to a further bout of price rise in the state which depends heavily on neighbours for its needs.
The LDF and BJP have given separate calls for dawn-to-dusk hartal on Saturday to protest the decision and demanded roll-back of the hike.
The LDF leaders said the hike amounted to a “declaration of war on people.”
In many parts of the state, youth outfits of CPI(M), CPI and BJP took out protest marches immediately after the decision was announced.
Associations of bus and truck operators demanded hike in fares, holding that they would not able to maintain their operations at the current rates in the wake of the diesel price hike.
The Centre yesterday hiked diesel prices by a steep Rs 5.62 per litre and restricted the supply of subsidised cooking gas to 6 cylinders per household in a year to fetch an additional Rs 20,300 crore.
In Patna, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar described the
Centre's decision as a ‘cruel joke'.
The hike in diesel price will particularly put additional burden on the farmers and will have a cascading effect on the prices of the food grains due to increase in transportation, he said.
Inflation and price rise will further escalate due to the diesel price hike, Kumar said.
He also termed the Congress-led UPA government's decision in this regard as ‘unfortunate'.
“It has been observed that whenever the Congress comes to power, it brings price rise with it,” he said.
Nitish Kumar demanded that the Centre should roll back the price hike of diesel and withdraw the proposal to restrict the annual supply of LPG cylinders to six per family.
In Kolkata, CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat today said his party will hold discussions with other parties on organising a stir to press for roll back.
“Both the decisions of hiking the diesel price and restricting the supply of subsidised cooking to six cylinders per household in a year are going to hit the common people badly,” he told reporters at the airport here.
“CPI-M has already strongly criticised the decision of the Centre. We are going to discuss with other parties as to how to organise a common movement to demand the rollback of the decision,” he said.
In Dadar, Mumbai, Shiv Sena women's wing blocked the roads and demanded rollback of both diesel price hike and LPG subsidy cut.
BJP activists staged protests in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and several other metros to protest diesel price hike.
Kolkata: BJP workers today burnt the effigy of the Prime Minister and blocked roads in various parts of West Bengal demanding immediate rollback of diesel price hike and restoration of full subsidy on LPG cylinders.
Hundreds of BJP workers carrying posters condemning the UPA government's ‘cruel blow' to the common man, blocked traffic on Howrah Bridge for some time with party leaders claiming that similar road blocks were held at Cooch Behar in north Bengal and Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas district.
The party's state general secretary Shamik Bhattacharya together with party workers burnt an effigy of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh before Calcutta University.
The party's state secretary Ritesh Tiwari demanded that the Trinamool Congress, which is a UPA ally, should immediately quit the coalition if it was opposed to the hike.
“If Trinamool Congress is seriously opposed to the diesel price hike and restriction on subsidised LPG cylinders, it should immediately leave the UPA government,” Tiwari said. Left opposition party SUCI (Communist) called for countrywide movement to force the Centre to reverse its decision.
The Joint Council of Bus Syndicate, which claims affiliation of 35,000 buses in West Bengal, today called an indefinite strike from September 17 statewide following the steep hike in diesel prices.
“It's impossible for us to run buses any more following the steep increase in diesel price. We have no other option but to go for a strike, “ General Secretary of the Syndicate Sadhan Das told a hurriedly called pressmeet here.
He said operators were already running at a loss which would be compounded by the diesel fare hike.
Nearly 35,000 buses statewide would be off the roads following the strike, he said.
Jammu : Demanding immediate rollback of hike in diesel price and the policy on cooking gas, several political parties here today held demonstrations and blocked roads against the Congress-led UPA government's decision.
Led by JK Shiv Sena chief Ashok Gupta, over 300 activists of the party and Dogra Front took out a protest rally and held anti-UPA government demonstrations in the city.
The agitators carried gas cylinders as a mark of protest. “We demand immediate rollback of the government decision,” Gupta told reporters.
Over 250 activists of Bhartiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) led by its state unit president Manish Sharma took to streets against the hike and blocked roads.
“We will intensify our agitation if the government fail to revoke the decisions,” Sharma said.
Carrying gas cylinders on carts, BJP district unit led by Ravinder Sharma took out a protest rally and held demonstrations.
Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Front (JKDF) activists also staged demonstration over the issue.
