More than 20 activists of the district unit of an RSS affiliated trade union on Thursday staged a day-long Dharna at district headquarters. The agitation by Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh was part of a nationwide protest of the union government on price rise and black marketing of essential goods.

The protestors released an eight-point charter of demand addressed to Prime minister Narendra Modi demanding immediate steps to control the rising prices of food items and petroleum products.

The protestors also threatened to up the ante if their demands are not met.

Talking to the media, KP Singh, former district general Secretary of Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh said, “Due to the wrong policies of the government at the centre, the inflation is at its peak and everybody right from farmers to the those in services sectors are facing its brunt.”

“The hike in prices of petroleum products coupled with the lack of control on the prices of essential products has made the prices of all household items including potato, onion, mustard oil, refined oil, pulses reach an all-time high. The management of house expense has become difficult for one and all,” said Gupta, adding that despite the one nation one tax provision, the oil prices are out of purview of GST due to which both state government and central government are imposing seperate taxes, leading to its skyrocketing prices.

“We are staging Dharna in all the district headquarters as part of the nationwide protest against the wrong policies of the central government as we are concerned with the difficulties faced by people across the country during the time of pandemic as they are already facing all kinds of issues due to unemployment owing to the closure of industries, offices etc,” said Gupta.

He also accused the central government of closing the public sector industries in name of monetization aggravating the situation of unemployment and price rise and said they would work to dislodge any government that will work against the common people.

Echoing sentiments, Bindeshawari Prasad, former state General Secretary of BMS said, “The price rise situation in the country is at its peak and we demand the central government to make provision for mentioning the production cost by producer on each product to solve the issue of black marketing of different products by hoarders.”