Hyderabad, March 02: The Telugu Desam and Left parties have decided to wage a joint agitation against the increase in the prices of petroleum products and essential commodities.
They will move an adjournment motion in the Assembly tomorrow to insist on a resolution urging the Centre to reduce the prices. These parties’ legislators will go on bicycles to the Assembly from NTR Ghat tomorrow morning.
Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu, Communist Party of India State secretary K Narayana and Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary BV Raghavulu met at the TDP headquarters here today and charted the agitational course. They decided to have coordination on the floor of the House tomorrow with other parties so that they could mount pressure on the State Government to adopt the resolution.
They decided to stall the proceedings of the Assembly if the government does not yield.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, TD president and Leader of the Opposition in the House N Chandrababu Naidu held the State and Central Governments squarely responsible for the rise of prices.
He criticised the Union Government for taking back the reduction of excise duty on petroleum products, which was given as part of stimulus package and increase of prices. Usually the new prices come into effect from the commencement of the new financial year but the government gave effect to the new prices on the same night of budget presentation, he pointed out. Comparing the prices of petroleum products in metro cities like Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai with those in Hyderabad, the TD president said that the prices were much higher here. The overall additional burden put on the people of the State was Rs 1,500 crore, he said and, giving the break-up, said that 40 crore litres of diesel would give Rs 1,200 crore, 10 crore of petrol would give Rs 300 crore to the government in a year.
Naidu took exception to imposition of service tax on railway freight and said that about Rs 3,000 to 4,000 crore of service tax was slapped on railway freight.
The service tax net was widened and the revenue expected from it was going to be Rs 60,000 crore, Naidu said. He critisised that even health care services were brought under the service tax net. He said that the rise of prices would cause a burden of Rs 1,600 on each BPL, Rs 2,400 on each middle-class and Rs 3,500 on each APL family. Naidu said that they planned a week-long agitational programme in the State. Dharnas will be held at the mandal headquarters and at Indira Park in the state capital on March 6.
Narayana said the previous UPA government had refrained from raising the prices under pressure from the Left parties on whom it depended. He alleged that the Union budget was corporate-friendly and anticommoner.
He wanted an amendment to the Essential Commodities Act made and strict vigilance kept on the godowns. If the contract carriage racket was stopped, the RTC would earn Rs 1,000 core every year, he claimed.
Raghavulu said the present inflation was the highest in 14 years. Describing the claim of the Union finance minister that the government was trying to make up the Rs 1.50 lakh crore stimulus package through tax hike as unreasonable, he wondered why direct taxes were not raised. He said the cut in allocation to PDS by Rs 500 crore and earmarking of 6 per cent for administrative expenses in the Rs 40,000-crore allocation to NREGS would take away whatever protective cover the poor had.
If the recommendations of the Parekh Committee were implemented the prices of petroleum products could not be controlled, he said.
–Agencies