Oppn walks out over petro products' duty hike

The proposed changes in duties related to petroleum products in the Budget stirred a hornet's nest today with the entire Opposition staging a walkout from the Lok Sabha and warning that they will not allow Parliament to run till a rollback is announced.

"This is a move that would lead to rise in prices of diesel and petrol and hit the common man already burdened by price rise," Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj said immediately after the walkout.

The issue united the entire Opposition with Swaraj as also Left leaders like Gurudas Dasgupta, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD President Lalu Prasad addressing an impromptu joint press conference outside Parliament House.

"The entire opposition is together," Prasad thundered attacking the government and accusing it of acting in a "dictatorial manner" against the interests of the common people. He said Parliament would not be allowed to function till a rollback is effected.

Raising anti-government slogans, they chanted "Jo Sarkar Nikammi Hai, Woh Sarkar Badalni Hai" (we have to change the inefficient government).

"We have boycotted the budget. Soon after a discussion on price rise, the government has increased the prices of petroleum products. This is anti-people," Swaraj said.

She said any increase in prices of petroleum product will be an "indirect tax" and have a cascading effect on the prices of all commodities.

 

Mulayam Singh Yadav also criticised the government for using the name of Mahatma Gandhi for the NREGA scheme.

"It (NREGA) is a den of corruption. Gandhiji fought for farmers and workers. His name has been unfairly used in this," Yadav said.

He said the people of the country will be on the streets soon and urged them to support the opposition like they did "during the Emergency".

Terming the walkout by the entire opposition as "unprecedented", the CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia said, "We have to take this step as the decision (petro price increase) would have a cascading effect on the prices of essential commodities."

"We will continue the agitation unless the government withdraws the proposal, Acharia said, adding, "It would affect common man adversely. Farmers, workers and the poor would be the worst-hit and we cannot be a mute spectator."

Terming the budget as "directionless, aimless and anti-people", BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi said it will only add to the rise in prices.

"People had expected the exemption limit in income tax to be raised up to Rs 2.5 lakh per annum. But that did not happen. The allocation for social sector has not increased much keeping in view the inflation.The budget is anti-farmer," he told reporters.

BJD leader B J Panda said the walkout was not pre-planned. "It was rather spontaneous. Yesterday, the government was discussing steps to tackle price rise and today they are proposing to increase petrol and diesel prices which will inflate the prices further."

RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said "this is a fraud on the people and government should withdraw the proposal".

Murli Manohar Joshi also termed as "unfortunate" the increase in prices of petroleum products.

"It is an inflationary Budget. It is anti-farmer, anti-poor, anti-development. It is a direction-less budget," he said.

Joshi said the income tax exemption should be for up to Rs 5 lakh annual income.

Slamming the government for "poor" implementation of social welfare projects, he said delivery rate of many of the programmes was hovering around 50 per cent.

"Only the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan has a delivery rate of 96 per cent and this programme was launched by the NDA government with effective monitoring and auditing mechanisms," he said.