The Uttarakhand Congress Committee president Kishore Upadhyay along with chief minister Harish Rawat and party state co in charge Sanjay Kapur submitted a six-point memorandum addressed to the President of India to the Governor. In the memorandum, the Congress has stated that the Central Government has steeply hiked price of cooking gas twice in the duration of one month. On the one hand the increase made in the price of cooking gas has intensified the burden of price rise on the poor while on the other hand it will prove beneficial to industrial families, the memorandum states.
Earlier, a meeting of the Uttarakhand PCC was presided over by PCC chief Kishore Upadhyay at the Congress Bhawan in the morning with the chief minister Harish Rawat, cabinet ministers, MlAs, assembly constituency candidates, state office bearers and heads of anxillary organisations and those appointed observers for the Vidhan Sabha 2017 election attending the deliberations.
The position of the party in the Vidhan Sabha election was discussed and reviewed in detail during the meeting with the party candidates also expressing their respective views on the occasion. The issue of the price of cooking gas cylinders being raised by the BJP-led Central Government under prime minister Narendra Modi, recent occurrences at the Delhi university and the alleged protection being provided by a BJP national general secretary to child trafficking were also raised and deliberated upon in detail during the meeting after which the Congress delegation headed by the PCC chief went to the Raj Bhawan to submit their six-point memorandum addressed to the president of India.
During the past two and a half years there has been considerable drop in the price of crude oil in the international market but despite this the Central Government in its term so far has increased the price of a cooking gas cylinder from Rs 350 a unit to Rs 780 a unit. This has affected the interests of the poor and low income group. The party leaders expressed surprise at the people remaining mute despite the prices of cooking gas, petrol, diseal an kerosene oil being more than doubled in the past two and half years. In the past one month, the Rs 154 increase made in the price of a cooking gas cylinder will earn large profits for private industrial enterprises. They also questioned the money spent by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly elections being held in five states of India. It appears as if the source of money spent by the BJP is the oil companies and industrial families from whom the BJP had received huge sums of money in cash in the five states undergoing Vidhan Sabha elections. The Congress pointed out that during campaign for the lok Sabha elections, the BJP leaders had promised to reduce the price of petroleum products and bring price rise under control but after forming government at the centre the price of essential commodities has risen instead of dropping as promised. By repeatedly increasing the price of commodities of necessity, the BJP-led Central Government has worked to the detriment of the common man while appearing to be committed to ensuring the benefit to companies and industrial families. The PCC has demanded that the Rs 154 increase made in the price of cooking gas cylinder be withdrawn immediately in public interest.