CM calls hike in fuel prices, cooking gas 'absolutely unacceptable'

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed her annoyance over the unprecedented hike in prices of fuel and cooking oil stating it to be "absolutely unacceptable and unpardonable" and held the Centre's anti-people policies responsible for the same.

Banerjee urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "kindly act" to immediately "withdraw" unprecedented hikes in prices of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and cooking oil.

Terming the BJP-led Central government to be an "apathetic" one, she held the Centre responsible for the abnormal hike in its prices that is taking a heavy toll on the lives of common people and their families.

"It pains me deeply to see how apathetic the @BJP4India government is and how anti-people their policies are! We have seen unprecedented hikes in petrol, diesel, cooking gas and cooking oil. This has taken a heavy toll on our people and their families. This is absolutely unacceptable and unpardonable," Banerjee stated in a tweet.

She further stated that "I would request the Hon'ble Prime Minister to kindly act upon the concerns of our people and withdraw such hikes, immediately".

This comes at a time when the price of a 14.2 kg cooking gas cylinder reached Rs 911 with a hike of Rs 25 on Wednesday. Just two weeks ago, the price of a cylinder had seen a hike of Rs 25. As a result, its price has gone up by Rs 50 in a month. The price of a 19 kg commercial cylinder went up to Rs 1770.59, with an increase of Rs 73.50 in one go.

Again, the price of cooking oil has increased by around Rs 40 to Rs 50 per litre in a month. Earlier, it used to get sold at Rs 127 a litre and now, it has gone up to Rs 155 a litre. Similarly, the price of mustard oil has gone up to Rs 180 per litre.

The petrol price has remained above Rs 100 mark in Kolkata since July 5. Petrol and diesel prices on Wednesday stood at Rs 101.72 per litre and Rs 91.84 a litre respectively. The price of auto-LPG has also gone up by Rs 2 on Wednesday and has been sold at Rs 58 per litre.

On July 5, the Chief Minister had written to the Prime Minister requesting to substantially reduce the Central taxes on fuel to give much-needed relief to people by checking the present inflationary trend in the country and also expressed her concern over the distress caused to common people with "shocking" rise in prices of petrol and diesel.