New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Mon. assaulted the BJP govt in the Center for rising fuel costs 22 times from the lock-down, accusing it of extorting citizens, & sought an immediate rollback of the hikes.
She charged the govt with profiteering in the expense of the citizens, informing its work has been to support them in times of crises & not make profits out of their own hard-earned amount.
Attending within the Congress’ “Speak Up Over Fuel Hike” campaign around the nation, she stated on the 1 hand, the COVID-19 epidemic has been wreaking havoc & on the different, the raise in petrol & diesel costs has been creating personal life quite tough for the citizens.
The Congress initiated the nationwide campaign on Mon. to press the central govt to roll back fuel costs as they have been hurting the common citizens.
Party chiefs Rahul Gandhi & Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also joined the campaign on social media(SM), & pushed citizens to join them in pressing the govt to lessen fuel costs.
“I, with all Congressmen & remaining together, insist from that Modi govt to immediately roll back the rise in costs of petrol & diesel rised during the crises because of the Coronavirus epidemic,” Sonia Gandhi stated in a video footage sms.
“I also urge them to roll back the raise in excise work on petrol & diesel from Mar this yr. & give this benefit to the countrymen. This going to be a big relief in this period of economic crises,” she stated.
The Congress chief stated this in its own has been the residing evidence of taking the hard-earned incomes of the citizens & filling the govt’s coffers.
“The govt’s work is to help the countrymen in tough times & not take (2) advantage of their own plight & profiteer.
“The govt has set a new example of extortion from citizens using this unjustified rise in petrol & diesel costs. This is not only unjust however also insensitive,” Gandhi stated, noting that it directly hurts the nation’s farmers, the poverty-stricken, the functioning class, the middle class & the small companies.
She stated the cost of petrol in Delhi Delhi(DL) & different big cities has crossed INR 80 per liter.
“After the Mar 25 lock-down, the Modi govt, within the last 3 mos, has rised the costs of petrol & diesel 22 times,” the Congress chief stated, adding that the cost of diesel has gone up by INR 11 per liter & that of petrol by INR 9.12 per liter.
“The Modi govt has made provision for collecting lakhs of crores by rising excise work on petrol & diesel within the last 3 mos. All this is happening in a time when the Intl. crude oil costs are constantly falling,” she stated.
The Congress president stated that from 2014, in place of granting relief of the falling Intl. crude oil costs to the citizens, the Modi govt has rised the excise work 12 times, that helped it collect extra revenue of nearly INR 18 lakh cr.
Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala also put out a video footage in the context of the campaign, alleging that the govt has received INR 1.three lakh cr using the fuel cost hikes from the lock-down.