The BJP-led government at the Centre and the YSRCP government in the State have failed to control the rising prices of essential goods and petroleum products, which are leading to severe financial stress to the common man, CPI State secretary K. Ramakrishna has said.
In a statement on Saturday, Mr. Ramakrishna said 10 Left parties would meet in Amaravati on Sunday (May 15) to “expose the anti-people policies of the governments.”
The parties would also discuss the steep hike in the prices of fuel and other essential commodities, and demand their immediate rollback, Mr. Ramakrishna said.
‘Heavy taxation’
The YSRCP government in the State, besides mounting indirect pressure on the people by indiscriminately borrowing for even paying salaries, had levied heavy taxes on property, imposed user charges on garbage collection, and was bent on fixing meters to the agriculture power connections, the CPI leader alleged.
The farmers in the State were reeling under severe crisis following crop loss in 2021, he said. The recent Asani cyclone had dealt a blow to the horticulture crops in Nandyal and Anantapur districts in more than 600 hectares, he added.
While the people were unhappy over the higher cost of petrol and diesel, the State government had put an additional burden on them by increasing the APSRTC bus fares (₹720 crore) and power tariff (₹1,400 crore), Mr. Ramakrishna said.
The CPI leader condemned the police action on the students of Rayalaseema University who were protesting in Vijayawada against the management debarring 152 students from writing the examinations.
He said the administration of S.K. University in Anantapur, Andhra University in Visakhapatnam, and Rayalaseema University in Kurnool had gone from bad to worse with no recruitment of the teaching staff and the officials, including Vice-Chancellors, behaving in a high-handed manner.
The Left parties would discuss the future course of action, he said. The CPI had appointed new secretaries for 24 out of 26 districts in the State and would launch programmes to strengthen these units, he added.
