Date:03/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/03/stories/2008120359350300.htm

Tamil Nadu

Left parties seek immediate reduction in domestic fuel prices

Staff Reporter

‘International crude oil prices have declined from $150 a barrel to below $50 a barrel’

PHOTOS: M. Balaji and S. Siva Saravanan

For a cause: Left parties staging a demonstration in front of the Corporation office in Tirupur on Tuesday demanding reduction in fuel prices (left) and a similar demonstration in the city. —

Tirupur: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India cadres staged a demonstration in front of the Corporation office here on Tuesday evening demanding an immediate reduction in fuel prices.

The party men criticized the Central Government’s ‘unwillingness’ to bring down the fuel prices even after the international crude oil prices considerably declined from $150 a barrel to below $50 a barrel in the last few weeks.

They said it was a “mystery” why the UPA Government did not lower prices.

They warned that the Left parties would organize nation-wide agitations if the Central Government failed to reduce prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas immediately.