Statewide BJP stir against petrol price hike, black money

Over 3,000 BJP leaders and workers courted arrest on Tuesday while participating in the Statewide Jail Bharo agaitation demanding total rollback of the hiked petrol price and salvaging the black money stashed abroad and control of the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities. The faulty and anti-people policies of the UPA Government at the Centre were also on their agenda of demands.

State BJP chief Jual Oram and senior leaders of the party — Biswa Bhushan Haraichandan, Pruthwiraj Harichandn and Golak Mohapatra, Bhubaneswar BJP district president Amiya Das, Ratikanta Das and hundreds of BJP men courted arrest in the State-level Jail Bharo movement at Bhubaneswar where the agitators violated prohibitory orders while demonstrating before the State Secretariat at the Lower PMG here.

Led by Bhubaneswar District BJP president Amiya Das, thousands of party men took out a rally from the State party office up to the Lower PMG, shouting slogans and waiving placards against both the UPA Government at the Centre and the BJD Government in the State for their anti-people policies that led to price hike and corruption. The BJP activists also burnt effigies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi during the rally.

Senior leaders including Oram and Haraichandan addressed the rally. Alleging that the wrong economic policy of the Congress-led UPA has resulted in frequent rise in prices of essential commodities, it also led to rise in prices of petroleum products in particular.

They alleged that the UPA Government has failed in every field and has pushed the country to the brink of disaster and corruption has reached all-time high in governance.

The recent petrol price hike has burdened the people, particularly the lower middle class, middle class and students and Government employees, they said.

Demanding total rollback of the hiked petrol price, Oram said BJP will continue its agitation in the entire State till complete rollback of the hike. He said the protest rally was part of the nationwide Jana Sangharsh Abhiyan being organised by the BJP from June 7 to 22.

Though the BJP had called for a Jail Bharo agitation on June 22 against the price rise and other anti-people issues, the date in case of Odisha was pre-poned in view of the Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath.