Roll back hike in prices of petrol products: Congress

Hanumakonda: Both the Central and State governments are vying with each other in making life miserable for the poor people, Warangal DCC president Naini Rajender Reddy said.

Naini who led the 'Chalo Collectorate' protest demanding the Centre and State to roll back the prices of petroleum and electricity tariffs respectively, accused the government of fleecing the common man whose economy had taken a dent due to the coronavirus pandemic for the last couple of years.

"The prices of all the essential commodities skyrocketed to a phenomenal high thus making living difficult for the middle class and poor. On the other hand, both the ruling TRS and BJP were enacting a drama accusing each other on various issues especially paddy procurement. It's nothing but hoodwinking the people," Naini said. BJP and TRS are vying with each other to divert the attention of the people from perennial issues that have been haunting people, he said. He said that the Congress during its regime didn't burden people even though the prices of crude oil fluctuated.

"While the Centre had accrued Rs 26 lakh crore, the State also filled its coffers by squeezing Rs 10 lakh crore from petroleum products in the last eight years," the DCC chief said.

The Centre didn't hike the prices of petrol, diesel and LPG for the four months in view of Assembly elections to five States; however, it started fleecing the people almost every day after the polls were over. Referring to paddy procurement, the DCC chief found fault with the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for writing a letter to the Centre that the State will not supply parboiled rice. Based on this letter, the Centre refused to purchase paddy from Telangana, he added. The Congress has always respected the system, Naini said, faulting the TRS Government for not extending protocol to the Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan.

Later, the Congress leaders submitted a memorandum to the Hanumakonda district collector Rajeev Gandhi Hanumanthu. TPCC vice president Vem Narender Reddy, former MP Sircilla Rajaiah, in-charges of Parkal and Wardhannapet constituencies E Venkatram Reddy and Namindla Srinivas, NSUI State president Balmuri Venkat and Dommati Sambaiah were among others present.