A day after Mamata Banerjee hit the road with thousands of women in Siliguri to protest the steep rise in prices of LPG cylinders and fuel, Trinamul candidates and leaders took out colourful protests on Monday across the state on this issue.
Sources said, the top Trinamul leaderships in Calcutta had instructed the party leaders in districts and the contesting nominees in 291 constituencies to flag the rise in the prices of fuel and LPG cylinders as both are connected to the daily life of common people.
The price of an LPG cylinder has touched Rs 845 now, making it outside the realm of the budgets of many households.
“The chief minister’s march in Siliguri touched the right chord on Sunday as thousands of women came out on the road to march with Mamata Banerjee. As rise in the price of LPG cylinders directly hits the kitchen budget, it easily angers people. After getting reports from the ground, we asked our leaders and the candidates to use the issue prominently in their poll campaign,” said a senior Trinamul leader in Calcutta.
Women cook on wood-fired ovens to protest the rise in the price of LPG cylinders in Howrah’s Uluberia on Monday. Amarnath Dutta
In her speech in Siliguri on Sunday, Mamata had reminded her audience that the price of LPG cylinders was “about to touch Rs 1,000”. “Those running the country have not made any move so far to arrest the hike. We provide food grains free of cost and, in a similar manner, cylinders should be distributed free among the people,” she said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not comment on the relentless hike in the price of fuel and cooking gas at the Brigade Parade Grounds rally on Sunday but did not forget to mock Mamata for riding an e-scooter in protest.
On Monday, state fisheries minister Chandranath Sinha, who is the Trinamul candidate from Bolpur, rode a bullock cart as part of a protest march in the town. The bullock cart was decorated with balloons. The minister wore a poster of a cylinder on his chest asking people to protest against the BJP’s policy to raise the price of an LPG cylinder to Rs 845.
“Modi is trying to take credit for his move to provide free gas cylinders (under Ujjwala Yojana) but he is silent on the price of LPG cylinders. The poor and the common man cannot afford to buy a cylinder. People in the districts depend on two-wheelers for their livelihood but it has become difficult to buy fuel with petrol selling for over Rs 95 per litre,” said Sinha while sitting on a bullock cart.
In Howrah’s Uluberia, around 50 women led by Trinamul district president and party’s Uluberia South MLA Pulak Roy protested against the LPG cylinder price rise by cooking on wood-fired ovens. “Monday was International Women’s Day and the Narendra Modi government has made it difficult for women to buy LPG cylinders. So, women members of our party protested by cook on wood fires near the LPG cylinder filling station in Uluberia,” said Roy.