Targeting the Modi government over rising inflation and fuel price hikes, the Congress on Thursday kickstarted a “Mehngai Mukt Bharat Abhiyan” under which it will organize rallies and marches across Chhattisgarh from March 31 to April 7.
AICC Chhattisgarh in-charge P.L. Punia and PCC chief Mohan Markam led the protest in the first leg of the three-phased programme.
“The protest was launched simultaneously at all the district headquarters where Congress activists rang bells and beat empty utensils," a Congress spokesperson said.
Empty LPG cylinders and vehicles were at display at the protest sites. Vehicles were garlanded in a bid to show that they were useless as people cannot fill their tanks, the spokesperson said.
Punia said that petrol and diesel whose prices were Rs 65 and Rs 55 during the Congress-led UPA regime in 2014, had now crossed the Rs 100 mark. Price of LPG gas too has been hiked from Rs 450 to Rs 1,050, he said.
The Modi government had levied Rs 26 lakh crore as excise duty from fossil fuels over the past eight years, Punia said.