Bhubaneswar: Congress on Wednesday virtually hijacked the fuel price hike issue from the BJD and stalled the Assembly proceedings over the issue.

The BJD has already given a call for a state-wide demonstration for three days from September 7 to protest against fuel price hike.

Shouting slogans against the BJP government at the Centre and the BJD in the state, the Congress legislators on Wednesday trooped into the well and tried to disrupt the proceedings by trying to snatch away the pen stand from the Speaker's table, forcing two adjournments.

The House could not transact Question Hour business due to the pandemonium. However, the supplementary budget was presented amidst noisy scenes, following which the House was adjourned for the day.

As soon as the House met on Wednesday, Congress legislators - led by party chief whip Tara Prasad Bahinipati - rushed to the well and squatted before the Speaker's podium protesting against the hike in petrol and diesel prices and shouting slogans such as "BJD-BJP hai hai, Narendra Modi hai hai".

Bahinipati tried to climb atop the Speaker's podium and snatch the papers and pen stand from the Speaker's table, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the proceedings for about an hour.

After the House reassembled, leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra said that there had been an alarming rise in prices of petroleum prices, which was now at an all-time high.

Dismissing the plea of the Central government that the price rise was due to rise in the price of crude oil in international market, Mishra said the price of crude oil was 147 USD per barrel in 2008 and the market price of petrol was Rs 45 per litre then. However, at present the crude oil price was 78 USD per barrel while petrol price has shot up to around Rs 80 per litre. "So, it is the failure of the central government which could not control the petroleum price," he alleged.

"The state government is saying that the petroleum price rise is because of high central excise duty being levied by the centre, while the Centre is asking the state to reduce the value added tax on the petroleum products," said Mishra demanding inclusion of petroleum products under the purview of Goods and Service Tax (GST).

According to the prevailing rate on Wednesday, the Centre is levying excise duties of Rs 15.33 on a litre of diesel and Rs 19.48 on a litre of petrol. On the other hand, the state is collecting Rs 15.33 VAT on each litre of diesel and Rs Rs 15.44 on each litre of petrol.