Kangpokpi protests fuel price hike
Source: Chronicle News Service

Kangpokpi, July 16 2021: Activists of District Youth Congress, Sadar Hills staged a protest against fuel price hike in Kangpokpi district headquarters on Friday.

The activists first assembled at IT road in Kangpokpi town and took out a protest rally till the petrol pump located along Twilang (Imphal-Tamenglong) road.

The protestors shouted slogans like 'BJP Government Down Down', 'Thaogi Mamal Hanthabiju (reduce fuel price)' during the rally apart from holding placards.

Some of the placards read 'Mr Modi stop looting your own fellow citizens', 'People of India wants employment not inflation', 'We want the economic package, not price hike', 'Stop petrol/diesel price hike or step down immediately, the choice is yours BJP Government', 'Stop blaming the pandemic for hiking oil prices', 'Stop blaming the previous regime for your incompetence and cluelessness', 'Stop squeezing the poor and middle class', 'Modi's Achche Din is a hike in price on petrol and diesel', 'N Biren Singh Government must reduce VAT on Petrol and Diesel', 'Cut excise duty on petrol and petroleum products', 'Killing people by price hike is not fair', 'Don't torture people by price hike during a pandemic', etc.

Speaking to media persons on the sidelines of the protest, District Youth Congress Sadar Hills general secretary (administration) Jang-minthang Kipgen informed that the symbolic protest was held against hike in fuel prices in the country while adding that BJP's 'Achche Din' is now proving to be 'Costly Din' as people of the country are seeking liberation from the expensive days of the BJP government.

Jangminthang said that he did not seek any political brownie point on the issue of price hike but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government would be made known the plight and misery of the poor and middle-class people amid the rising oil price in the country.

He pointed out that continuous hike in oil price has its economic ramification on the poorest of the poor and the middle class who constitute 55 percent of the country's population while adding that oil price rise in the country is mainly based on two factors, the international crude oil price and taxes levied by the Central and state governments.

Taking a jibe at the BJP government, the DYC Sadar Hills leader said that the country imports crude oil at USD 74 per barrel and sells it at INR 105 in most of the states and cities while in the UPA regime, crude oil was imported at USD 112 per barrel and sold it at INR 65 in the country.

He said that having said this tomorrow any BJP spokesperson would come up before the media and give their own explanation as this is how they manage to survive till today.

Centre and the state can rationalize the oil prices in the country by reducing the excise duty and value-added tax on petroleum and petroleum products and quickly bringing it under the ambit of GST which is not a big deal for the BJP as we all know that the BJP is in power in most of the states, asserted the DYC Sadar Hills leader.

He appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government to stop making all their excuses on the pandemic and also stop blaming the previous government for whatever is happening today.

Mention may be made her that petrol is currently sold at Rs 106.13 per litre and diesel at Rs 94.09 per litre at a petrol pump in Kangpokpi town.

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