Govt insensitive to common man's woes: Sushma

Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj today charged the government with being insensitive to common man's woes and said the Bharat Bandh to protest fuel price hike was called to "shake the UPA government out of its slumber".

"We gave the call for the Bharat Bandh mainly to shake the UPA government out of its slumber as it appeared bent on increasing the problems of the common man," Swaraj told reporters here.

She said the prices of petroleum products had been increased twice in the last four months and this had cast a "heavy burden" on housewives as their domestic budgets have gone haywire.

The Leader of Opposition claimed that people in Madhya Pradesh were "so fed up" with rising prices that business establishments remained closed without being asked to do so.

Swaraj said it would be premature to talk of a no-confidence motion against the UPA government at this time, but pointed out that discussions will be held with various Opposition parties before start of monsoon session of Parliament on July 26.

The Opposition parties will definitely raise the issue of hike in prices of petroleum products vociferously in both houses of Parliament, she said.

Referring to an advertisement placed by UPA government in major dailies, Swaraj said it highlighted prices of LPG and Kerosene in neighbouring countries but was conveniently silent on prices of petrol and diesel.

While a litre of petrol in Pakistan costs Rs 26, Bangladesh Rs 22, Nepal Rs 34 and Burma Rs 30, in India it is nearly Rs 55 per litre, the BJP leader claimed.

She asked the government why it failed to highlight the prices of petrol in these countries and only focused on LPG and kerosene.

Alleging that "government lacks compassion and action", the Leader of Opposition recalled that during NDA rule, the then government also went for dismantling Administrative Price Mechanism (APM) regime and introduced Revenue Neutral Method to control prices of petroleum products due to which half of the burden was passed on to oil companies and remaining to the public.

The present government resorted to hike in the prices of petroleum products to bridge its huge budget deficit as it will get Rs 1.20 lakh crore dividend from oil companies out of it, she claimed.

Meanwhile, the bandh in Madhya Pradesh is almost total with only government offices and essential services like medical shops remained open.