Chennai, June 29: Seven opposition parties in Tamil Nadu led by the AIADMK Tuesday called a general strike July 5 to protest against the fuel price hike.
In a joint statement, the parties criticised the central government for not doing enough to check rising prices of food and other essential commodities.
The statement was signed by leaders of the AIADMK, MDMK, Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), AIMMK, All India Forward Bloc and INL.
The statement said that a conference of chief ministers convened Feb 6 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took no concrete action to control prices.
“On the other hand, the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government has been taking steps that would increase the prices,” it said.
The parties also opposed the deregulation of petroleum prices that would allow oil marketing companies to fix the retail prices based on the prevailing prices of oil in the international market.
–IANS