Lucknow, May 31 (IANS) Ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) activists Tuesday staged protest rallies against petrol price hike in all the 72 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Chief Minister Mayawati personally monitored the statewide protests from Lucknow, where her senior-most minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui led the demonstration at the Jyotiba Phule Park.
Siddiqui, who holds charge of eight key portfolios, was joined by Urban Development Minister Nakul Dube, former health minister Anant Kumar Misra and Rajya Sabha member Akhilesh Das.
Senior party functionaries, including cabinet ministers, were detailed to supervise the demonstrations in key districts while local MPs and legislators organised the protests in other places.
‘Between 2008 and now the petrol price had gone up by 20 rupees,’ Siddiqui told the crowds in Lucknow.
He attacked Congress leaders for ignoring the international pricing of crude oil before allowing the oil companies to fleece the public.
‘While the centre has been trying to justify the price rise in the name of economics, fact remains that the whole exercise is absolutely arbitrary,’ he said.
Blaming the central government for giving the oil companies a free run, Siddiqui said: ‘the decision to get the oil pricing outside the purview and control of the government was evidently aimed at extending undue benefits to the oil companies.’
BSP has announced that it will take the agitation to other states.
