Opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh attack govt over fuel price hike

The Opposition Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday attacked the BJP government over the rise in fuel prices, saying it was unfair to trouble people reeling from the impact of Covid-19.

The parties demanded that the government immediately stop burdening the public with the increase in fuel prices. "It is totally wrong and unfair to trouble people who are already facing problems because of the Covid-19 pandemic, unemployment and inflation, by continuously and unnecessarily increasing the prices of petrol, diesel and LPG. The rationale of the government to raise funds for public welfare through this tax increase is not fair," the BSP supremo said in a tweet in Hindi. "It is essential to immediately stop this burden on the public pocket by constantly and arbitrarily increasing the tax on petrol, diesel etc," she said, adding the government will do a huge favour on hardworking people and the middle class by checking the prices.

Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav also took to Twitter to criticise the BJP government over the rise in fuel price.

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"Income is decreasing, there is cut in salaries, What will one eat and save?" Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi. He also tagged a cartoon which showed a scooter with "vikas" written on it and a petrol nozzle with a man's face showing his difficulty in coping with the price rise. Price of petrol touched an all-time high of Rs 97 per litre in Mumbai on Saturday, while diesel rate crossed the Rs 88-mark.

This was the 12th straight day of the price hike and the largest daily increase since oil companies started to revise rates on a daily basis in 2017. The increase pushed the petrol price to Rs 90.58 a litre in Delhi and to Rs 97 in Mumbai. Petrol price has already surged past the Rs 100-mark in some places in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, which levy the highest VAT on the fuel.