Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

TDP, Left stage ‘maha dharna’

Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam

A boy holding a flag as leaders and activists of Left parties and TDP stage a dharna in the city on Tuesday. —

VISAKHAPATNAM: The district and city units of the CPI (M), the CPI and the Telugu Desam Party organised a ‘maha dharna’ in front of the Collectorate here on Tuesday demanding that the Centre reduce prices of diesel, petrol and LPG. Leaders of the parties expressed anger over the government not reducing the prices of diesel and petrol though the international price of crude oil had come down. When the price was high, the government allowed oil companies to hike the price of fuel to avoid losses to them but when the international price of crude had dropped, the benefit was not passed on to the consumers, they said.

By reducing the prices of petrol and diesel, prices of all commodities would come down and people would be able to purchase and help strengthen the economy. But the government was not willing to initiate the positive step, leaders said.

All the parties submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister through the Collector demanding that the government reduce the burden on the people.

Several suggestions made by the Left parties were ignored while private companies like Reliance were allowed to make huge profits by increasing the price for the gas purchased by it.

Ch. Narasinga Rao, V.S. Padmanabha Raju, R.K.S.V. Kumar and others from CPI (M), M. Anjaneyulu, A.J. Stalin, M. Pydiraju and other leaders of the CPI, Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy, Sundaram Patrudu, M. Venkata Rao, Kona Tata Rao and others from TDP along with workers participated in the dharna.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu