Mamata Banerjee attacked the Narendra Modi government on Saturday over the recent hikes in prices of petroleum products and also accused the Centre of allowing an increase in prices of essential medicines.
The anti-BJP diatribe of the Bengal chief minister comes at a time the Opposition parties at the Centre are trying to use the price rise issue to mobilise public opinion against the Modi government.
“In the past six days, prices of petrol, diesel and cooking (LPG) gas have increased five times. It is a return gift of Narendra Modi to the people of Uttar Pradesh who voted for his party. They should have reduced the prices but instead prices have gone up, adding to the inconvenience of common people,” said Mamata here on Sunday.
She was speaking at a public distribution programme organized at Uttora Ground located in Gossainpur on the outskirts of Siliguri.
In the run up to the elections in UP and four other states, the prices of petroleum products had stayed almost constant, which was seen as a pre-election strategy of the BJP. Even then, several Opposition leaders and economists had predicted that the prices would immediately begin moving northwards after the polls.
Besides harping on the petroleum product price issue, Mamata also spoke elaborately on how prices of around 800 essential drugs — including paracetamol, azithromycin and some other antibiotics and diabetic drugs —will go up from April 1.
“They have increased the prices of around 800 essential drugs. One has to spend extra money even to buy a basic tablet like Crocin (paracetamol),” the chief minister said.
On Saturday, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) — the drug pricing authority of India that functions under the Union ministry of chemicals and fertilizers — announced a change of around 10.7 per cent in the wholesale price index in 2021.
This implies that prices of around 800 drugs named in the NLEM — the National List of Essential Medicines — would go up by around 10 per cent from the first day of next fiscal, said sources.