Tirupati: Congress demands reduction in GST on fuel, food items

Tirupati: Congress activists led by former union minister Dr Chinta Mohan staged a protest here on Tuesday demanding that the Centre reduce the GST on petrol and diesel and also food items.

The activists holding a banner raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi government for its anti-poor policies.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Mohan demanded scrapping of GST on food items and slashing the GST rate on fuel to provide relief to the common people who are struggling to make both ends meet due to the increasing cost of living.

Later at a media conference, he said that he would intensify the stir to press for the reduction or scrapping of GST on essentials like food items and fuel and also for enhancing the monthly wage of contract and outsourced workers working in various departments and also at Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD).

The outsourced employees are now paid Rs 9,000 to Rs 11,000 rupees only which is far less than the minimum wage fixed which is Rs 20,000, he said, strongly demanding to increase the wages for the contract and outsourced employees working in government departments, universities and TTD.

The senior Congress leader particularly lashed out at the TTD, the temple management meting out a raw deal to its outsourced and contract workers and exploiting them by paying Rs 9000 monthly, despite possessing adequate funds as its annual revenue is more than Rs 3,000 crore.

The management of the religious institution should be more humane towards it workers doing menial jobs and sanitation works like cleaning cottages, guest houses, roads facing risk to their health, he said seeking the TTD to immediately increase the salary of outsourced, taking into account their yeomen service to pilgrims and keeping the world famous Tirumala hills clean and tidy.

In this connection, he said that his party would pass an act to increase the minimum wage to outsourced and contract employees to Rs 30,000 per month.

He took the occasion to appeal to the people of the State not to vote for YSRCP, TDP and BJP as they are `three in one.’ Elaborating, he said Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy and opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu are one and the same genuflecting before the Centre and ignoring state interests.

”Jagan is in one pocket of Amit Shah and in the other Chandrababu Naidu,’’ he said sarcastically while stating that voting to YSRCP or TDP is voting to the communal BJP. He further said Jagan was often flying to Delhi only to refill his oxygen to survive, hinting that his trip was only to get reprieve from court cases. Congress leaders P Prabhakar, K Chiranjeevi and others were present.