Condemning the hike in petrol prices by oil-marketing companies, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday said that his party would organize protests across 224 Assembly constituencies in the state as part of the first phase of its agitations to press for a roll-back on prices.
Talking to media persons at NTR Trust Bhavan, the TDP chief said that the party would organize protests across 224 constituencies on January 22nd to protest the fuel price-hike which had put an additional burden on the common man already reeling under skyrocketing inflation.
As part of the protests, Naidu would ride a bicycle from the NTR Trust Bhavan to Indira Park. The bicycle ride would be a symbolic protest to bring to the attention of the oil companies that the fuel prices had climbed a notch beyond the reach of the common man.
The party would intensify its protests in the second phase after having discussions with like-minded parties and national leaders on the issue, Naidu pointed out.
He said that the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was bothered when the sensex in the stock market fell, but was not worried about the plight of the common man who had to face the brunt of escalating prices of essential commodities.
The former Chief Minister added that since 2004, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had hiked the petroleum prices 19 times. Naidu appealed to the Prime Minister to follow Administered Price Mechanism to control prices. The centre had discontinued the APM, and had allowed the oil companies to set prices according to the market rate of oil at the global level.
Naidu stated that though oil-marketing companies earned crores of rupees in profits in the form of refinery margins, they were hiking petrol charges burdening the people.
He also pointed out that both the centre and the state governments were getting 25% and 21% respectively as tax by selling 1 litre of petrol. If the government reduced value added tax, the prices of petrol would come down, the TDP chief stated.
Courtesy: INN
filed in:Chandrababu Naidu, Petrol Price Hike, Manmohan Singh