TMC: LPG price hike anti-people, Centre ignoring interests of poor
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, on Tuesday, once again hit out at the Narendra Modi-led Centre over the LPG price hike calling it a ‘Poila Baisakh’ gift. With a sharp jab “Modi hai toh mehengai hai” the ruling Trinamool said the hike of LPG price will affect both subsidised and non-subsidised users adding to the pressure on common people.
The ruling party in Bengal said the Centre was ignoring the interests of the poor and pushing essential items further out of reach of the common people. Trinamool Congress criticised the LPG cylinder price hike by Rs 50, calling it an arbitrary and anti-people move ahead of Poila Boisakh.
Trinamool Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Ritabrata Banerjee on the issue said: “We have the Nobo Borsho in a few days and PM Narendra Modi has already given us a gift for it. The Modi government has once again burdened the common people by increasing the price of LPG cylinders by Rs 50, both with and without the subsidy. For the people of Bengal, it seems this is Modi Ji’s special Poila Boishakh gift.”
Slamming BJP’s anti-poor Ujjwala Yojana State Women and Child Development and Social Welfare minister Shashi Panja said: “The Modi government keeps boasting about the Ujjwala Yojana. However, data says that of the 9.58 crore beneficiaries linked to this scheme between 2022-23, there are 1.18 crore beneficiaries who couldn’t afford a single refill and 1.51 crore beneficiaries could take refill only once.
This means that the beneficiaries under this scheme could afford less than four cylinders a year. You are giving cylinders, but people don’t have the financial capacity to afford it and on top of this, you have hiked the price by Rs 50.”
State Finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said: “It seems that they don’t feel the need to think about the poor people. Not just the LPG, even Health insurance is charged with 18 per cent GST. Prices of over 900 medicines have been hiked. What kind of medicines are these? They are all daily use medicines for treating issues like blood pressure and cholesterol.”
