Mangaluru: Dakshina Kannada District Congress Committee staged a protest over an increase in the price of fuel and essential commodities on Tuesday.
A rally from the clock tower to the DC’s office along with a bullock cart was carried out by the protestors. A few Congress workers also carried firewood and LPG gas cylinders with them.
Addressing the protestors, former minister B Ramanath Rai said, “When a leader turns into a businessman, his people would become beggars. The union government led by Narendra Modi is an unofficially autocratic government in the country.”
“When the UPA government led by Congress was in power, the excise duty for petrol was Rs 9 and Rs 3 for diesel. But, the BJP government in the center has made excise duty Rs 33 for petrol and Rs 32 for diesel” he charged.
“The BJP government came to power assuring the people of bringing back black money but though it is seven years after coming to power, it has failed to bring the same,” he added.
Former minister and MLA U T Khader said, “People should speak out against the BJP led governments’ anti-people policies. The BJP government is in power to sell India and raise taxes on the general public. The banks were nationalized by the Congress government, but the BJP government is working hard to privatize them.”
“The BJP government in the state is acting as the agent of the central government” he added.
“The fishermen are in a state of distress because the government has yet to release the subsidy money that they are entitled to. “If the government provides reservation for upper-class people, it is betraying the district’s other backward classes. When the UPA was in power, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel organized protests against price hikes. Why is he now silent on rising fuel prices?” Khader questioned.
District Congress president Harish Kumar said, “The union government’s policies are putting the public into trouble. Narendra Modi’s government is favoring only the big corporates like Ambani and Adani.”
He also stated that the Prime Minister is not prepared to speak to the media and instead prefers to engage in the ‘Mann ki Baat’ program.
KPCC spokesperson Sudhir Kumar Murolli, Former MLAs J R Lobo, Mohiuddin Bava, Shakunthala Shetty, and others were present.
