NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, AHMEDABAD, BENGALURU, JUNE 29
The Congress party on Monday protested against incessant fuel price hike across the country, including the national capital, and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to roll back the prices.
The opposition party has repeatedly criticised the Central Government for inflating fuel prices at a time when the country is fighting against the coronavirus disease.
The protests are being held in Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Patna, among other places. At 10.30 a.m., Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President Anil Kumar protested against the hike in prices by the Central and Delhi Government at the petrol pump near the IP College.
The party’s youth wing, the Indian Youth Congress, also protested against the unregulated hike in the prices of petrol and diesel. On Sunday, senior Congress leader K.C. Venugopal had said that the party would hold protests in front of the Central government offices.
The Congress has also decided to launch a five-day protest, starting on June 30, against the fuel price hike in each block of the country.
પેટ્રોલ ડીઝલના અસહય ભાવ વધારાના વિરોધ માં આજે #બોલશે_ગુજરાત #હું_પણ_બોલીશ
આપ સૌ પણ અભિયાનમાં જોડાવ. https://t.co/g7zBTn7xf8— Amit Chavda (@AmitChavdaINC) June 29, 2020
Earlier on Monday, the party also started the #SpeakUpAgainstFuelHike campaign. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to take a swipe at the Central government for the rising fuel prices and urged people to join the campaign against it.
The 50-year-old leader took to Twitter to show his resentment and stated, “Come and join#SpeakUpAgainstFuelHike campaign.”
This came after the state-run oil marketing companies raised the prices of petrol and diesel on Monday, a day after there was no hike in rates that were increasing continuously for three weeks.
#speakupagainstfuelhike https://t.co/6GUF8HdA9K
— Amit Chavda (@AmitChavdaINC) June 29, 2020
Gujarat Congress chief, 50 workers detained
Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda and nearly 50 other party workers were detained in Ahmedabad on Monday while they were trying to take out a rally against the ruling BJP at the Centre over the fuel price hike, police said.
They were not given permission for such a gathering, a senior police official said.
The opposition party also organised similar protests in Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat districts of Gujarat and demanded rollback of the hike.
In Ahmedabad, Chavda and 50 other Congress workers, including MLA Gyasuddin Shaikh, were detained near Sardar Baug area while trying to take out a rally against the increased prices of petrol and diesel.
Police said the demonstrators were not given permission for such a gathering or for taking out a rally.
“The Congress workers gathered in a busy area without any permission. We have detained nearly 50 protesters, including Chavda and Shaikh, for holding protests and trying to take out a rally without permission,” Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 2, Dharmendra Sharma said.
Before being detained, Chavda slammed the government over the fuel price hike and denying permission for the protest.
“This government is not ready to understand the plight of the people, who were first hit by the coronavirus and now by the fuel price hike. We will continue to raise the issues concerning citizens, who were literally abandoned by this government. We want the Centre to roll back the hike,” Chavda told reporters before his detention.
Congress workers in other parts of the state were also detained for holding protests over the issue, officials said.
Diesel price scaled a new high on Monday after prices were hiked for the 22nd time in just over three weeks, taking the cumulative increase to Rs 11.14 per litre.
Petrol price was increased by 5 paise per litre and diesel 13 paise a litre across the country, according to a price notification of state oil marketing companies.
While the diesel rates have been hiked for the 22nd time since June 7, petrol price has been raised on 21 occasions.
Cong holds cycle rally against fuel hike in Bengaluru
Defying social distancing and mask-wearing, hundreds of Karnataka Congress leaders and cadres on Monday staged a cycle rally in the city against the steep hike in petrol and diesel prices by the Central government.
“The cycle rally in Bengaluru and across the southern state is a part of our nationwide protest against increasing petrol and diesel prices by state-run oil marketing firms due to increase in excise duty by the central government at a time when crude oil is trading at its lowest price the world over,” a party leader said.
Party’s state unit president D.K. Shivakumar, opposition leader in the Assembly Siddaramaiah, party’s state unit working president Sameer Ahmed and senior leaders Ramalinga Reddy and Dinesh Gunde Rao participated in the cycle rally from the party’s office to the Income-Tax office, a km away.
In this tech city, petrol price rose to Rs 83.04 per litre and diesel Rs 76.58 a litre after a 21-day rally till Saturday.
Acting as pall-bearers, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar held an old scooter draped in a white cloth as a ”dead body” at the party office in a symbolic protest against the fuel hike and how the citizens were suffering.
As the cycle rally pedalled through a busy road between the Cantonment railway station and I-T office in the city centre, an ambulance got stuck in the gridlock due to heavy vehicular traffic on the week’s first working day.
“It is unfortunate that the opposition Congress is endangering the health of its leaders and cadres by staging a cycle rally without maintaining physical distance and many of them not wearing mask properly,” lamented BJP’s state unit spokesman G. Madhusudhana.
Noting that an opposition party had right to protest in democracy on any issue or the government, Madhusudhana said, but it had no moral right to risk the health of its leaders and cadres when COVID cases were spiking in the city.
