New Delhi, June 13
The BJP today said that the party along with its NDA allies is going to intensify its agitation on the fuel price hike issue and condemned the Centre's proposed move to increase PDS grain prices along with a cut down in the quantum of grains being sold to poor.
Addressing newspersons, former BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu said that by increasing the PDS grain prices and reducing the quota of ration, the UPA government is going to deliver a death blow on the poor.
Since the government's proposal to cut down the quota and to hike the price of the food grain will have a direct bearing on the poor people and is a direct attack on the livelihood of millions of poor people, the BJP will oppose it, Mr Naidu said.
How can a government which is supported by the Left parties, the RJD and the DMK, who claim form the roof tops to be champions of the poor, resort to such anti-people policies of hiking the prices of petroleum products, hiking the PDS issue price and reducing the quota of grain given to the poor people, the BJP leader asked and pointed out that the UPA had earlier exhibited its anti-working class nature by reducing the EPF rates from 9.4 per cent to 8.5 per cent.
Mr Naidu said the BJP and its NDA allies will organise nation-wide protests against the hike in petroleum prices at the district level on June 19 to draw the attention of the people towards the retrograde steps taken by the UPA government.
He said the BJP and its NDA allies would jointly hold demonstrations, protests at the state and central levels where senior BJP leaders would join the protests. They would also focus attention on the proposed hike in issue price of Public Distribution System and reduction in the quantum of allocations to the families living below the poverty line.
Lashing out at the Left parties, the BJP leader said he failed to understand the rationale behind the Left parties protesting on the streets against petroleum hike when the very existence of the government depended on their support.
''They give green signal inside the Parliament and protest on the streets. They should tell their position to the people and this kind of 'dramabazi' will not go down well with the common man,'' he said.
He said Congress President Sonia Gandhi had visited Ananthapur during the Telugu Desam regime when farmer suicides were taking place and over 3,000 farmers had committed suicides after the Congress government had taken over in Andhra Pradesh. ''What prevents her from visiting the affected farmers' families? '' he said.
He said although the wheat production in the country this year was normal, the policy of non-procurement by the FCI had compelled the nation to import wheat giving abnormal prices to the imported wheat.
