TMC protests against fuel price hike in Kolkata

Trinamool Congress activists on Sunday burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and shouted slogans aimed at the BJP-led central government, as part of demonstrations against rising fuel prices at various places in the metropolis.

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress activists on Sunday burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and shouted slogans aimed at the BJP-led central government, as part of demonstrations against rising fuel prices at various places in the metropolis. In Mohammed Ali Park area of central Kolkata, members of the Bus Minibus Operators Committee pulled a private bus plying between Dunlop and Esplanade with strings for several metres to drive home their point.

"It has become almost impossible to operate buses in the present situation. The Narendra Modi government is doing nothing to stem the prices of petrol and diesel Does it want us to ply buses with strings? Pradip Narayan Basu, a member of the operators' body, said. TMC supporters, carrying an empty LPG cylinder decorated with flowers, burnt an effigy of Modi in another part of central Kolkata.

In Maniktala, protesters, led by TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh, carried placards and shouted against the Centre. The country is reeling under an unprecedented rise in fuel prices for several months now, but the BJP government seems unconcerned about the plight of the people, he alleged. Petrol was retailing at Rs 108.11 per litre in Kolkata on Sunday, while diesel was being sold at Rs 99.43 per litre in the city. Diesel prices have already crossed the century-mark in several districts of the state.

PTI