Rahul Demands Rollback In Prices Of Fuel, Leads Protest Against Hike

Among those present included Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. "Our demand is that the government should control prices and stop raising petrol and diesel prices," Gandhi said while noting that the poor and middle class have been worst hit by the hike. "We can see that petrol and diesel prices are climbing rapidly. The government is making thousands of crores from this. The Congress is protesting across the country against this price rise of petrol and diesel. The government has to stop doing this. It has to ensure that prices do not rise," he said. "I had said that when elections will be over, the prices of petrol and diesel will be rising and had asked people to fill up their tanks," he said. This level of price rise in petrol and diesel has been unprecedented, he said while accusing the government of stealing the money from the poor and handing it over to industrialists.?

The Congress is also launching a week-long countrywide protest against inflation and rise in fuel prices. Petrol and diesel prices were on Thursday hiked by 80 paise a litre each, taking the total increase in rates in the last 10 days to Rs 6.40 per litre. Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon local taxation. This is the ninth increase in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22.

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