Petrol price hike: DMK to lead state wide protest

Chennai: After West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, another UPA ally, the DMK will protest against the petrol price hike on Wednesday. DMK chief M Karunanidhi will be leading the state-wide protest from Saidapet. The protest comes two days after the ruling AIADMK held a similar agitation demanding a rollback.

The demonstration will also be targeting the state government for not rolling back the hike in milk prices, power tariff and bus fares.

Mounting pressure on Congress at the Centre and AIADMK in the state, Karunanidhi on Tuesday said both the Centre and Tamil Nadu governments should voluntarily come forward to reduce their tax percentage, so that the recent price hike does not hurt the common man.

The demonstration will also be targeting the state government for not rolling back the hike in milk prices, power tariff and bus fares.

"The state government in Tamil Nadu gets 27 per cent tax from the petrol price. If the Centre and state governments reduce their tax percentage substantially on petrol, the recent hike will not affect the public," he said in a letter to his partymen.

The 88-year-old patriarch said the DMK agitation on May 30 was only to insist that the Centre and state governments, "instead of pretending to be worried over the hike, should themselves voluntarily come forward and reduce their share of tax on the petrol."

Karunanidhi said the DMK regime had never increased the prices of these commodities and services.

With Additional Inputs from PTI

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