India's daily rise in fuel prices found its latest critic in a member of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and BJP ally Janata Dal (United) with the party's Principal General Secretary KC Tyagi calling for a rollback of the hikes in prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas in the last 15 days.
"We request the government to roll back the hike in the prices of petrol, LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) and diesel. The government should immediately stop the hike in the prices of petrol, diesel and LPG," Mr Tyagi told NDTV.
"It is very important to roll back their increased prices because it will have a bad effect on inflation. The rising inflation is also affecting the voter who had helped the NDA win in the elections with great enthusiasm," he added.
Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 80 paise a litre each on Tuesday, taking the total increase in rates in the last two weeks to Rs 9.20 per litre.
Petrol in Delhi will now cost Rs 104.61 per litre as against Rs 103.81 previously, while diesel rates have gone up from Rs 95.07 per litre to Rs 95.87, according to a price notification of state fuel retailers.
Petrol prices in three metro cities of Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, meanwhile, have gone up by almost Rs 2 per litre over the last three days, touching record highs.
Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon the incidence of local taxation.
This is the 13th increase in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month-long hiatus in rate revision on March 22. In all, petrol and diesel prices have gone up by Rs 9.20 per litre.
The hike triggered protests in the Lok Sabha, with sloganeering and shouting by some opposition members on Tuesday forcing two successive adjournments in the House.
As soon as the House met at 11 am, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and DMK's TR Baalu demanded a discussion on the hike in fuel prices.
As Speaker Om Birla continued with the Question Hour, members of the Congress, DMK, Trinamool Congress, Left parties lined their way to the centre of the Lok Sabha and raised slogans against the Modi government. Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party members too joined the protests.
Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri, however, defended the hikes, saying that the rise in India is one-tenth of prices raised by other countries.
In India the price hike has just been 5 per cent while in the US and France, it has been 50 per cent each, the minister said.
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