New Delhi

‘Govt. failed to prevent strikes’

NEW DELHI: Delhi BJP president Om Prakash Kohli on Saturday criticised the UPA Government at the Centre for its failure to tackle the truckers’ strike by accepting their just demands. He said this approach had led to a rise in prices of consumer goods and it appeared that the Government was bent upon acting against the interests of the people.

Stating that the Government should have taken immediate steps to end the strike, he said imposition of the Essential Services Maintenance Act was a “despotic measure” and showed that the Government’s approach was “anti-people” and this had led to the build-up of a real crisis.

The truckers, he said, were demanding a reduction in diesel prices by Rs.10 per litre, amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act and the Carriage by Road Act, moratorium on payment of instalment and reduction in tyre prices. These demanded were genuine and therefore the Government should have acted on them keeping in mind the interest of the common man, he added.

Likewise, he said, the demands of oil company officers of having five year’s periodicity for wage revision and implementation of Rao Committee recommendation were also genuine and could have been settled much earlier. “Both the striking classes have not gone on flash strike but had given enough time to the Government to take decisions. The Government has failed miserably. Thus it is not the truckers and the officers but the UPA Government that is holding the nation to ransom,” he said.

Reiterating the BJP’s demand for cutting the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs.10 per litre immediately in line with the fall in crude oil prices in the international market, Prof. Kohli charged that while the Government had declared its intention to slash the prices, it was withholding the decision to suit its political time-table to leverage advantage in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

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