JKNPP stages protest against price hike in Jammu

The Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) today protested against "sharp rise" in prices of fuel and other essential commodities, saying "the inflation in the country has broken the back of the common masses".

A group of JKNPP activists led by party chairman and former minister Harsh Dev Singh assembled at Exhibition Ground here and staged a noisy protest before setting ablaze an effigy of the BJP to express their resentment over the current inflation.

Singh alleged that "burning holes in the pocket of common people" had become a "benchmark of BJP's governance" and the collection of exorbitant excise duty of over Rs 2.5 lakh crore annually from diesel and petrol had become a new normal which was like looting people and was not at all justified.

Referring to the price rise of domestic gas in the country on a frequent basis, the JKNPP leader said with the petrol and diesel becoming dearer, the price rise of other petroleum products like domestic LPG cylinders had also added to the woes of the end consumers.

Singh accused the BJP of "hypocrisy and double speak" over the inflation issue and said when it was in the opposition, its frontline leaders wasted no time to lodge series of protest demonstrations at every nook and corner of the country against the price rise of essential commodities.

"With the saffron party having been in power for the last four years, the inflation rate had peaked all time high and broken all records with none of its ministers uttering a word over the soaring prices," the former minister said.

He said the prices of almost all the pulses and cereals had risen by an astounding rate.

Likewise, the prices of vegetables, edible oils and dairy products had crossed all-time high adding further burden on the people, Singh said.