By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 25 Jun: Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee leaders led by PCC Chief Pritam Singh today staged a public protest and formed a human chain against the continuous increase in the prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas.
Congress President Pritam Singh on Thursday addressed the party workers at the State Congress headquarters and, later, took out a rally up to Clock Tower, formed a human chain and raised slogans against the Modi Government.
Addressing the party workers at Congress Bhawan, Singh attacked the Modi Government for ‘robbing the people of the country by shamelessly keeping the prices of petroleum products unusually high! He claimed that the government had robbed the people of an amount of Rs 80 lakh crores due to high taxes on petroleum products. He reminded that the government did not relent even during the Corona pandemic and increased the prices of petrol by Rs 21.50 and diesel by Rs 26.46 per litre. This was akin to adding to the financial woes of the common person who was already in crisis due to the pandemic. Pritam Singh said that the Congress would no longer tolerate this plunder by the Modi government and an agitation would be held against inflation up to the district, block and Nyaya Panchayat levels.
The Congress also submitted a memorandum addressed to the President of India to the District Magistrate. In its memorandum, the Congress urged the President to force the Modi Government to withdraw the high taxes levied on petroleum products.
On 5 May, the Modi Government imposed an excise duty of Rs 13 on diesel and 10 per litre on petrol, he claimed. The government had continued to increase the prices of petrol and diesel for 18 days. This was akin to extortion, he alleged.
The Congress leader claimed that when the UPA government led by Congress was in power at the Centre, the price of crude oil was USD 108 per barrel, which fell to USD 43.41 per barrel on 24 June, 2020, i.e. about 60 percent of its value. Despite this, the BJP government had raised the prices of petrol and diesel.
Present on the occasion were Congress leaders Vijay Saraswat, Aryendra Sharma, Rajendra Shah, PK Aggarwal, Naveen Joshi, Rajpal Kharola, Lalchand Sharma and Rajkumar, among others.