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Cycle rally, signature campaign: Cong to hold phased protests against fuel price hike from July 17
Jharkhand state unit of Congress on Monday decided to hold a phased protest from July 17 against price hike, especially that of petrol and diesel, party leaders said, adding that a symbolic cycle rally and a “signature” campaign at petrol pumps will be part of the demonstration
Jharkhand state unit of Congress on Monday decided to hold a phased protest from July 17 against price hike, especially that of petrol and diesel, party leaders said, adding that a symbolic cycle rally and a “signature” campaign at petrol pumps will be part of the demonstration.
A meeting to chalk out a detailed strategy in this regard was chaired by Jharkhand Congress president and finance minister Rameshwar Oraon, along with legislature party leader and rural development minister Alamgir Alam, at the party’s state headquarters here.
“We will organise a cycle rally in all district headquarters, as affording to ride even a motorcycle is getting out of common people’s budget. The protest will kick off on July 17 by taking out a cycle rally across the state. On July 19, a signature campaign will be run across petrol pumps, where we will seek opinion of peopleon price hike. On July 28, we will hold a state-level protest following Covid-19 protocol,” Oraon told media persons after the meeting.
Blaming the Centre for the spiralling fuel prices, the Jharkhand finance minister said the state does not have the headroom to reduce VAT on petroleum products.
“The Centre has left the states with no source of revenue after all commercial taxes were merged in GST. VAT on petroleum is the only major source of income left for states. But, still we have not increased VAT from the existing 22% sine we came to power. However, the Centre has increase excuse duty on petroleum products seven times since coming to power in 2014,” said Oraon.
Some of the prominent leaders who attended the meeting included working presidents Rajesh Thakur, Keshav Mahto Kamlesh, Manas Sinha, Sanjay Paswan besides spokespersons Alok Dubey and Kishore Shahdeo, Rakesh Sinha and M Tausif amon others.
