ADDING FIRE TO PROTEST CPI activists in Bhubaneswar protesting against the hike in petrol price twice in a month. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 16: The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) today criticised the Centre’s move to hike the prices of petrol. The youth wing of the BJD staged a dharna in the capital and burnt effigies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

With the fresh price hike, petrol will now be priced at Rs 58.20 per litre at Bhubaneswar, Rs 58.50 per litre at Cuttack, Rs 58.13 per litre at Berhampur and Rs 57.73 per litre at Balasore.

“The UPA’s decision to hike petroleum prices will break the backbone of the common man. In the past six months, the UPA government has hiked the price of petroleum products six times. We will continue to protest against the Centre’s anti-people policies. Protest meetings will be held in front of the offices of district collectors,” said BJD youth wing convenor Sanjay Dasburma.

The price hike of petroleum products has come handy for the BJD which is going to launch its “Parivar Sampark” campaign from tomorrow.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is also going to organise a massive rally targeting both the state and Centre, has also decided to take up the petroleum price hike issue. “The price rise of petroleum will certainly be an issue (at the rally),” said BJP state unit president Jual Oram.

The rally will be addressed by BJP national president Nitin Gadkari here tomorrow.

Left parties also sharply reacted to the price hike. State CPI(M) secretariat member Santosh Das said: “The petroleum price hike will have spiralling effect on the prices of essential commodities. Our the party has already directed its field functionaries to launch agitation demanding rollback of the petro price hike.”

The state unit of the Samajwadi Party criticised the Centre for its failure to check the price of essential commodities and petroleum products. “The UPA should immediately rollback the price of petroleum,” said SP state president Rabi Behera.

Not only political parties, the common man too has reacted sharply to the fresh price hike. “The middle class will certainly be affected. We will not be able to run our motorcycles. We have to keep motorcycles at home and go to college and the market place either on foot or on bicycles,” said Mohan Das, an undergraduate student of a city-based college.