Cong stages protest against fuel price hike in J khand, seeks immediate rollback

Congress activists in Jharkhand, led by senior leader and state finance minister Rameshwar Oraon, on Monday joined the party's nationwide protest against rising fuel prices, and sought immediate rollback of the hike.

Congress activists in Jharkhand, led by senior leader and state finance minister Rameshwar Oraon, on Monday joined the party's nationwide protest against rising fuel prices, and sought immediate rollback of the hike. Fuel prices were hiked for the 22nd time on Monday in just over three weeks.

State Health Minister Banna Gupta, senior Congress leaders Subodh Kant Sahay and Alok Dubey, along with other party leaders, staged a demonstration for two hours near the Raj Bhavan and submitted a memorandum addressed to President Ram Nath Kovind at the Ranchi deputy commissioner's office. Similar protests were also held in the districts, with several Congress leaders raising slogans against the Narendra Modi government.

"The party is holding protests against petrol and diesel price hike in several parts of the country today. We want immediate roll back of the hike," Oraon said. Criticising the grand old party over the protest, the BJP said that the current JMM-Congress-RJD dispensation has withdrawn the Rs 2.50 cut on excise duty granted by the previous saffron party government.

"We would want to know why was the relief granted by the previous BJP government withdrawn by the present dispensation?" Pratul Shahdeo, the saffron party's state unit spokesperson, said..