The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Thursday urged President Ram Nath Kovind to direct the Union Government to reduce prices of petrol and diesel at the earliest as lives and livelihoods of the people of the country, including Odisha, have been affected severely due to skyrocketing of fuel prices.
The party submitted a memorandum to the President though Governor Prof Ganeshi lal in this regard.
Stating that the party has collected information from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the Union Petroleum Ministry, the memorandum said when the UPA Government came to power, the international crude oil prices were around 25 US dollars per barrel while one litre of Petrol in Delhi was Rs 33. The international crude oil prices peaked at 112 US Dollars per barrel and a litre of petrol in Delhi cost Rs 65.76. However, when the international crude oil price in present day is about 88 US dollars per barrel, a litre of petrol is priced at Rs 77. The PPAC data shows that crude oil prices have been declining since 2014 but the benefits of that has not been passed on to the people of India. Shockingly, in 2015-16, the international crude oil prices hit a massive low of 46 US dollars per barrel but it did not deter the rise of petrol prices. “We hope you would consider our rightful demand for reduction of Central excise duty on petrol and diesel keeping the interest of the people of Odisha and India as the foremost priority,” said the leaders.
The signatories of the memorandum were Niranjan Pujari, Prasanna Acharya, Debi Prasad Mishra, Sanjay Kumar Dasburma, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Pranab Prakash Das, Bijaya Mohanty, Priyadarshi Mishra, Ananta Narayan Jena, Bijaya Nayak, Amaresh Patri, Ranapratap Patra and Gitanjali Bastia. In another event held at Master Canteen Square here, student and youth activists of the BJD burnt the effigy of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh in protest against his reported statement that Chhattisgarh would always get more water from Mahandai and even the Central Water Commission can’t stop it.