Neeta condemns centre for skyrocketing prices of commodities

Central Chronicle News
Bhilai, June 06: Antyavasayi Corporation Vice President and AICC Member Neeta Lodhi staged a day-long dharna at her residence in Sector 5 to protest against the rising inflation. She held the wrong policies of the BJP government responsible for price rise.
After Corona, inflation is also proving to be a national disaster. In the tenure of the Modi government, the skyrocketing prices of petrol, diesel and food items like pulses, milk, edible oil, etc have created financial trouble for common people. The price of mustard oil has increased three times. Instead of giving relief to the people, PM Narendra Modi is robbing their pockets, she alleged.
Neeta Lodhi said that, the crude oil prices are dropping across the world but due to misgovernance at centre, the prices of petrol and diesel are increasing indiscriminately for the last seven years. In April 2014, the price of crude oil in the international market was $103 per barrel.
Then PM Manmohan Singh did not allow the prices of petrol and diesel to increase in the country. At that time, the price of petrol was Rs 72 per liter and that of diesel was Rs 55 per litre.
Today, the price of crude oil in the international market is $ 69.15 per barrel. Whereas in Durg, the price of petrol has reached Rs 92.76 per liter and the price of diesel has reached Rs 92.38 per liter.
In some cities of the country, the price of petrol has crossed the Rs 100 mark. In the month of May itself, the price of petrol and diesel was increased 16 times and this trend continues in the month of June as well.
Crude oil prices have come down by 36 percent in seven years, even after that petrol prices have been increased by 31 percent and diesel by 55 percent. In the last only one year, during May 30, 2020 to May 30, 2021, the price of petrol has been increased by Rs 18 per liter and the price of diesel by Rs 19 per liter. Modi government has increased the excise duty on petrol by almost four times while the excise duty on diesel was increased by more than 10 times.
Neeta said that the price of domestic LPG doubled in seven years. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, had clearly stated that the price of domestic LPG has doubled during the last seven years of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s rule.
Kerosene is considered as the fuel of the poor. For those who cannot buy LPG, kerosene is the only support. The price of kerosene was Rs 13.96 per liter in May 2020 whereas today its price has reached Rs 30.38 per liter. That is, the price of kerosene has registered above 100% hike.
The price rise of edible oil has broken all the previous records. In May 2020, the price of 1 liter of mustard oil was Rs 90 per liter, which has increased to Rs 200 per liter. Similarly, the prices of other edible oils sold at Rs 100 to Rs 110 per liter last year have reached Rs 200 at present.
There has been a steep rise in prices of medicines also. The demand of medicines has significantly increased during Corona period. There are many drugs including life saving medicines which are controlled by the central government.
These include 364 drugs including medicines for diabetes, blood pressure, heart disease, etc. But now even those medicines are not in the reach of common man. Even after under regulation of the central government, the pharmaceutical companies have been increasing the prices continuously.
After Corona pandemic, now the inflation has emerged as a national calamity, Neeta said. It is known to all that the fuel price hike makes transportation costlier. That is, in the coming days, the transportation of everything including vegetables to ration, etc will be expensive and their prices will increase rapidly.
It is being anticipated that in the coming days, apart from cooking gas, kerosene, cooking oil, vegetables and ration are also going to be available at expensive prices. Medicines have become expensive. Clothing is also going to be expensive.
It is clear that PM Narendra Modi has made all the arrangements that the people of India should be hit by inflation even before recovering from the impact of Corona.
Central government has no explanation why the prices of petrol and diesel increasing even after reduction in crude oil price. Why is the government busy filling its treasury by increasing the excise duty? During the dharna, Neeta Lodhi was accompanied by former Councillor Rekha Sahu, former Block President of Women’s Congress Sumati Sinha, Surendra Kumar, Smita Lodhi, Pragya, Prakhar and Rajkumar.