Bhubaneswar, Feb. 16: Non-Congress political parties, including the BJP, today staged protests against the price hike of petroleum products from midnight.
BJD legislators, on the other hand, demanded in the Odisha Assembly that a unanimous resolution be adopted condemning the “anti-people” decision of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.
The BJD MLAs staged a dharna in the Assembly while activists of the party’s youth wing took out a protest rally in the evening.
Leaders and workers of the BJP burnt effigies of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Mamohan Singh at their Odisha headquarters near Ram Mandir Square while CPI activists staged a roadblock on Rajmahal Square over the issue.
“The people will never forgive the UPA government at the Centre and teach a befitting lesson during the coming polls,” said Odisha BJP unit president Jual Oram, warning that his party would intensify its protest if the Centre did not roll back its decision. Odisha unit secretary of the CPI Dibakar Nayak said his party supporters would stage protests throughout the state.
Raising the issue in the Assembly, government deputy chief whip Sanjay Kumar Dasburma said the UPA government had effected price hike of petroleum products 19 times between 2004 and 2013.
“This has proved that the UPA government is anti-poor and anti-people,” he said.
Dasburma demanded that a unanimous resolution be passed in the House condemning this “anti-people” move.
Supporting the demand, senior BJD leader and former agriculture minister Amar Satpathy said the price rise of petroleum products would have a spiralling effect on the prices of essential commodities and thus hit hard the poor and middle class.
Former minister Pramila Mallick, who heads the women’s front of the BJD, said women would feel the pinch the most as the petroleum price hike would have impact on consumer goods.
BJD member Ananta Das said the Congress should also support the resolution in the larger public interest. “Or else the people of Odisha will not forgive them,” he said.
