Lucknow: Congress protests hike in fuel prices

Earlier in the day, the party's national president Sonia Gandhi attacked the BJP government at the Centre for increasing fuel prices 22 times in recent days She charged the government with profiteering at the expense of people, saying its duty was to help them in times of crisis and not make profit out of their hard-earned money.

Demanding an immediate rollback of the hike in fuel prices, Congress workers staged protests in Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow on Monday. The leader of the party in the UP assembly, Aradhana Mishra 'Mona', said it is for the first time in free India that the "prices of diesel have exceeded that of petrol". "The maximum impact of the rise in prices will be faced by farmers," she said. Meanwhile, UP Congress convener Lalan Kumar accused the Centre of burning a hole in people's pocket. He said the increase in diesel prices have made other items dear, "adversely impacting" the common man. Lucknow unit chief of the Congress, Mukesh Chauhan, too demanded that the hike be taken back. Earlier in the day, the party's national president Sonia Gandhi attacked the BJP government at the Centre for increasing fuel prices 22 times in recent days

She charged the government with profiteering at the expense of people, saying its duty was to help them in times of crisis and not make profit out of their hard-earned money. Participating in the party's "Speak Up Against Fuel Hike" campaign across the country, she said on the one hand, the COVID-19 pandemic was wreaking havoc and on the other, the rise in petrol and diesel prices was making life very difficult for people. The Congress launched the countrywide campaign on Monday to press the central government to roll back fuel prices

Party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also joined the campaign on social media and urged people to join them in pressing the government to reduce fuel prices. The Congress president said since 2014, instead of giving relief of the falling international crude oil prices to people, the Modi government has raised excise duty 12 times, which helped it collect additional revenue of nearly Rs 18 lakh crore.

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