Demanding a roll back of the rising prices of fuel the Congress MPs staged a protest outside the parliament on Thursday.
Interacting with media after the protest, party leader Rahul Gandhi said: “The Congress is protesting nationwide against the fuel price hike and we demand a roll back as the government is filling its coffers while the comman man is suffering.”
The Congress has planned a three-phase protest. On Thursday, Congress leaders and workers, along with people will stage a protest outside their homes and public places by garlanding gas cylinders, scooters/bikes, empty petrol/diesel cans, etc., and also post these activities on various social media platforms, to draw the attention of the deaf BJP government against the insurmountable increase in prices of gas-petrol-diesel.
A circular issued by the party says: “People of India have been betrayed, duped and deceived by the Modi Government. After keeping the prices of petrol, diesel, gas cylinder, piped natural gas (PNG) & CNG unchanged for 137 days to secure the votes of people, last one week has been a nightmare for budget of every household.”
Between April 2 and 4, at 11 a.m. there will be ‘Mehngai Mukt Bharat Dharna & March’ with participation of people at the district headquarters, organised by the District Congress Committees.
“On April 7, the party workers, frontal organisations, departments and cells, along with labour associations, unions and civil society groups will hold a similar ‘Mehngai Mukt Bharat Dharna & March’ at the state headquarters, organised by the Pradesh Congress Committees,” it read.
The state-run Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) hiked the fuel prices again on Thursday for the ninth time in the last ten days.