The women's wing of the TPCC today organised a 'vanta varpu' (cooking on the road) agitation to protest the "rapid" and "uncontrolled" rises in the prices of fuel and LPG cylinders in the nation.
The demonstration, held outside the Gandhi Bhavan, was attended by several party leaders including MLA Seethakka, TPCC Spokesperson Indira Shoban and MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy.
Speaking on the rising prices, the leaders pointed out that the cost to refill an LPG cylinder was nearly Rs 900, while the price of a litre of petrol was nearly Rs 1,000.
They also accused the BJP-led Centre of having failed to keep a promise the party had made ahead of the 2014 elections, that of reducing fuel prices within 100 days of coming to power, and said that the "failure" to control the prices showed the Centre's "anti-people" attitude.
Uttam Kumar Reddy expressed his displeasure at the rise in prices as well, and stated that cooking gas had become unaffordable for the common man.
"While the prices of petrol and diesel have crossed all logical bounds, the BJP Centre has gone ahead and increased the prices of LPG cylinders as well. The cost of cylinders has almost trebled. Both the Centre and the state government are playing with the lives of the common people by not taking steps to control the prices. Their apathy and negligence has burdened the poor and the middle-class sections of society," he alleged.
"Though the governments of many neighbouring states have announced subsidies on LPG cylinders, the KCR government has not taken any such steps. Unlike the Centre and the CM, the Congress will continue to stand by the people of the state and the nation. We will fight against the rise in fuel and LPG prices till they are lowered and made more affordable," he added.
(The Congress leaders in the state have been voicing their criticism of the Centre's "failure" to address the rises in the fuel prices quite frequently. TPCC Vice-President and former MP Mallu Ravi had also slammed the Modi regime for
"burdening" the economically disadvantaged people of India by increasing the prices of many essential commodities, including petrol, diesel and LPG cylinders.)
The Youth Congress too had organised a protest today.
A group of activists had gathered outside the Gandhi Bhavan and the Telangana State Public Service Commission building (the two buildings are adjacent to each other) to demand that the TRS government release a white paper on the job posts filled by the government since 2014, and that it take steps to introduce an unemployment dole, as it had previously promised.