Congress protests outside Shimla DC office over fuel price hike, demands PM's resignation

Congress party workers protested outside the deputy commissioner's office in Shimla, demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's resignation over the recent fuel price hike.

The Congress on Monday protested outside the office of the deputy commissioner here against the hike in fuel prices and demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During the protest by the District Congress Committee, Shimla (Urban), hundreds of party workers raised slogans against the Centre, accusing it of failing to control inflation.

Petrol prices were raised by Rs 2.61 a litre and diesel prices by Rs 2.71 a litre on Monday, the fourth increase in less than two weeks that extended a delayed pass-through of soaring global crude oil costs triggered by the Iran conflict.

The latest increase took cumulative hikes since May 15 to nearly Rs 7.5 per litre.

Addressing the protest, Congress district president Inderjeet said that the claims of 'Amrit Kaal' made by the central government have fallen flat.

Instead of focusing on diplomacy, Modi is indulging in ''Melody, Melody'', he said, alluding to the prime minister gifting a pack of Melody toffees to his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni during a recent visit to Italy.

''Diverting people's attention from real issues by creating new narratives has become a habit of the BJP,'' Inderjeet charged.

The real picture of the country's economy in the past 11 years is now clear to everyone. The Centre has hiked petrol and diesel prices four times in the last 10 days, directly affecting the poor and common people, he said.