Fuel fury:Left hits road, slams Govt

An implacable Left on Tuesday launched a nationwide agitation against the fuel price hike ?? which it called "unjustifiable" and "irrational" ? and called for a complete rollback. CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said the hike could have been avoided if the Centre had listened to the Left's suggestions ? like slashing customs and excise duties on crude imports.

An implacable Left on Tuesday launched a nationwide agitation against the fuel price hike –— which it called "unjustifiable" and "irrational" — and called for a complete rollback. CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said the hike could have been avoided if the Centre had listened to the Left's suggestions — like slashing customs and excise duties on crude imports.

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"We also suggested that the oil cess fund, amounting to Rs 1,25,000 crore, could be converted into a price-stabilisation fund so that the entire burden of global crude price hike was not passed onto the consumers," Karat said. He added that if the central taxes were reduced, then the Left-ruled states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura might think about slashing sales tax.

The Left leaders, including Karat, CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury and CPI's A.B. Bardhan, courted arrest along with hundreds of activists. They said the demonstration was to mount pressure on the government to reverse its "anti-people" decision and that the issue would be raised at the UPA-Left Coordination Committee meeting on Thursday.