The Congress party staged a protest against the ‘unjustified’ hike in the prices of petroleum products on Monday.
Responding to a national-level call, the party’s State working president N. Thulasi Reddy led the protest at Kadapa and presented a representation addressed to the President through District Collector Ch. Hari Kiran.
He called it an ‘extortion’ bid by the Central government and demanded rollback of the hike, including the central excise duty, which he said had come at a time when the nation was facing an unprecedented situation.
“The Modi government is profiteering from the misery of the people by repeated increase in prices as also excise duty on petrol and diesel,” he remarked.
In Tirupati, PCC General Secretary D. Rambhupal Reddy staged a mock demonstration by pulling cycle rickshaws from the Rajiv Gandhi statue, indicating that the commonman could no more afford motor transport due to their prohibitive cost.
He said the undue hike would break the back of a commonman and lead to hike in prices of all essential commodities. Senior leader Penubala Chandrasekhar explained in a detailed statement how the “heartless” Central government had gone ahead in hiking the prices, though the crude price plummeted at the international level.
