Nama slams Centre over LPG price hike

Khammam: The BRS Floor Leader in Lok Sabha, Nama Nageswara Rao, came down heavily on the BJP-led Union government here on Thursday for raising the LPG cylinder price, thus further burdening the poor in the country.

Demanding the withdrawal of the hike, the MP rued that rather than go to the rescue of the people already reeling under inflation, the Centre imposed further burden upon them, immediately after the election in three states. He warned that the people would teach a bitter lesson to the Modi government if it did not concede the demands of the people for relief from the LPG price increase. He ridiculed the price hike, terming it the gift from Prime Minister Modi to women ahead of National Women's Day.

He said that the common people were suffering because of the wrong decisions by the Central government, and they were vexed by its anti-poor policies in the last nine years. He advised the poor to go back to the traditional stoves using firewood. He fumed how the government could increase steeply the LPG price from about Rs 460 nine years ago to around Rs 1,200 now. High prices of petro products are scaring away big investors from the country, thus drying up employment prospects for the youth, he said. Nama called upon the people to back the BRS fighting against the BJP in the country and strengthen its hands to bring effective welfare programmes for the poor and the middle classes.