‘Cut in LPG price a ploy to woo voters’

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, August 30

Even as the government termed the cut in the price of a 14.2 kg cooking gas cylinder by Rs 200 as a gift for women ahead of Rakhi, common people feel that successive governments have used this as a ploy to earn their goodwill ahead of elections.

Amarjit Singh Asal, a labour leader, said the price of fossil fuel and cooking gas has been used to empathise with the voters. Once the election is over, the empathy also dissipates and the government turns its back to the daily grind of the common people. He said the overall inflation increased the household budget manifold during the BJP rule at the Centre. A year before the General Election, the Narendra Modi-led BJP government now wants to change the public discourse which is a mere eyewash. Yet he said it was a welcome move and the government must reduce the price by Rs 200 more.

Anu Dhawan, a housewife and mother of two growing kids, said her family has been shelling out about Rs 1,150 per LPG refill and Rs 40 above it as transportation charge. She said curtailment in the price of a cylinder by Rs 200 was a welcome move but it has come extremely late. Of late, there has been high inflation with prices of vegetables, grocery, spices, milk and other essential domestic commodities rising. Even then, the government has not done anything to check the prices. Families with modest means and housewives have welcomed the Centre’s move to slash the LPG refill prices by Rs 200 per cylinder.