Kolkata, January 17: In a bid to outdo each other, UPA ally Trinamool Congress, which has declared it was unaware of the hike in petrol prices, took to the streets, while the ruling
CPI(M)”s trade union wing CITU called a three-hour transport strike in the metropolis, gridlocking traffic today.
“On January 19, a delegation of Trinamool Congress MPs will meet the Prime Minister and inform him that we are worried about the price rise,” Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandopadhyay told newspersons while leading a rally here against the hike.
The meeting will follow a rally at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi against spiralling prices of essentials and deteriorating law and order in West Bengal, he said.
The party also held block-wise protests against the petrol price rise and the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities during the day.
Bandopadhyay did not spare the Left Front government saying “the state cannot shirk its responsibility, it also has a role in not being able to control the unbridled rise in prices of essentials.”
The Trinamool chief had yesterday said that she was unaware of the hike in petrol prices and that the CPI(M)-led Left Front government in the state felt elated every time prices were increased as it gave it an opportunity to gain from increased excise and cess.
Coinciding with the Trinamool rally, a three-hour transport strike was called by CPI(M)”s trade union wing CITU from noon on the same issue.
CITU leader Shyamal Chakraborti, addressing a rally of transport workers at Esplanade in the heart of the city, said “it cannot be believed” that the Trinamool Congress leadership was unaware of the rise in the price of petrol.
“They are helping the Congress to do whatever they want. Mamata Banerjee met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee at the airport on the evening of the petrol price rise. It cannot be believed that she was kept in the dark,” he said.
Ironically, commercial vehicles run on diesel, though the protest was against the price rise of petrol.
——-PTI—-