India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The women's wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Ludhiana staged a protest against the government's recent decision to increase fuel prices. Raising anti-government slogans, they termed the government's decision as insensitive to the plight of commoners. "We have demonstrated against the price hike. We all have beaten the plates to awaken and remove the government so that prices could come down. The price hike in cooking gas, diesel petrol is affecting the general public," said Suman Bhatia, a functionary of women's wing of Ludhiana district unit of the BJP. Similarly, at Agra , BJP workers and other organisations protested in an unusual manner. They tore open their clothes and raised anti-government slogans, while women protestors blocked traffic in protest. "Poor people have taken to the streets to demonstrate against the price hike. If a person is hungry he looses his self-control. In such a hot weather the people are unable to get mouthful of food and in such a scenario, the BJP cannot sit at home," said Chaudhry Udai Bhan Singh, a local leader. Meanwhile, in Patna , the workers of the Farmers' Cell of the regional Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), also expressed their resentment over the fuel price hike. They raised slogans against the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Around 50 tractors were pushed along the city's streets of the city to vent their ire against the price hike. On Friday, central government decided to raise petrol and diesel prices, as part of a plan to move towards a market-determined fuel price regime in accordance with the Kirit Parikh Committee recommendation. The government has raised the price of petrol by rupees 3.73 per litre while it is rupees 2 for diesel.

Protests against fuel price hike continue across India