FUEL PRICE HIKE
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Fuel prices: Left, Govt lock horns
Published on Wed, Jun 07, 2006 at 17:11, Updated on Thu, Jun 08, 2006 at 08:09 in 
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New Delhi: The Government and its Left allies may be heading for a showdown over the decision to increase the prices of petrol and diesel.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday indicated that he is not going to change his decision. A few hours later, Left parties said that they would not accept a partial rollback of prices and want a complete rollback.
"We will carry out an extensive campaign to put pressure on the UPA government to rollback the price hike. The people have been hit by the price increase and we are concerned with the people's interests," Left Front chairman Biman Bose said in Kolkata.
He rejected Petroleum Minister Murli Deora's statement that a rollback was unlikely. Bose, who is a CPI-M politburo member, said the Left wanted to know from the Prime Minister himself whether he will order a rollback or not.
The hike could have been avoided if the Centre had rationalised the duty structure. Bose said Left parties will observe June 13 as 'protest day' and organise sit-in demonstrations across the country in front of oil PSUs' offices.
The form of protest has been left to the state units of Left Parties, which might include strikes and sit-ins. In Bengal, Left parties will start a campaign against the hike on June 11. Protest meetings will be held in front of oil PSUs on June 12, he said.
Processions would also be organised in rural areas in which peasants organisations have been asked to join.
The hike has also given fuel to the BJP. Party activists on Wednesday held nationwide protests. In Delhi, BJP workers blocked a road and demanded a rollback.
They shouted slogans against Congress President Sonia Gandhi in West Delhi and burnt tyres during an hour-long road blockade.
BJP president Rajnath Singh also accused the Prime Minister of serving Sonia and urged the Left to end support to the UPA Government. "Everybody knows that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is not working for the country. He is subservient to the Congress president," the BJP leader.
He said the BJP-led NDA would hold nationwide protests against the UPA's economic policies.
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