Rahul Gandhi demands rollback in prices of fuel; leads protest against hike

New Delhi, March 31

Stepping up the attack against the government over steep hike in fuel prices, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the rise in petrol and diesel prices has been unprecedented and demanded its rollback.

Leading a protest by Congress MPs on the issue at Vijay Chowk here, he said prices of petrol and diesel had risen nine times in the last 10 days, and the common man is the worst affected.

Congress MPs from both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha carrying placards raised slogans against the government and sat on a dharna against the fuel price hike.

Among those present included Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

“Our demand is that the government should control prices and stop raising petrol and diesel prices,” Gandhi said while noting that the poor and middle class had been the worst hit.

“We can see that petrol and diesel prices are climbing rapidly. The government is making thousands of crores. The Congress is protesting across the country against the price rise of petrol and diesel. The government has to stop doing this. It has to ensure that prices do not rise,” he said.

“I had said that when elections would be over, the prices of petrol and diesel would rise and had asked people to fill up their tanks,” he said.

This level of price rise in petrol and diesel had been unprecedented, he said, while accusing the government of stealing the money from the poor and handing it over to industrialists.

The Congress is also launching a week-long countrywide protest against inflation and rise in fuel prices.

Petrol and diesel prices were on Thursday hiked by 80 paise a litre each, taking the total increase in rates in the last 10 days to Rs 6.40 per litre.

Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon local taxation.

This is the ninth increase in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month-long hiatus in rate revision on March 22.