BHUBANESWAR: Questioning the Congress- led UPA Government’s ‘aam aadmi’ slogan, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday said the latest petrol price hike has truly overburdened the common man.“The Congress-led UPA Government, which swears by welfare of the ‘aam aadmi’, is doing things which are callous and shocking,” Naveen told mediapersons while strongly opposing hike of Rs 1.82 per litre of petrol. Food inflation has already touched an all-time high, Naveen said and added further rise in petrol price will add to the misery of the poor.People will never tolerate such antipoor policy, he said and reiterated his party’s opposition to frequent fuel price hike. Finance Minister Prafulla Ghadei slammed the UPA government which deregulated the oil sector. “Since the Government has no control over oil companies, they hike prices of fuel though it is a welfare state,’’ Ghadei said. Meanwhile, the youth wing of the ruling BJD staged a demonstration near Raj Bhavan.“The people of Orissa have already rejected the Congress. Now the party will be wiped out for hiking fuel price,” president of the Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD) Sanjay Dasburma said.Addressing the demonstration, BJD MP Baisnab Parida, MLAs Bijay Mohanty, Sameer Ranjan Das, Prabhat Biswal, Sarojini Hembrum, City Mayor Anant Narayan Jena and BYJD spokesman Bijay Nayak demanded immediate withdrawal of price hike.Dubbing the UPA-II as ‘anti-poor’, the State unit of Samajwadi Party (SP) also demanded rollback in the interest of the common people who voted the Congress-led coalition to power. “When UPA-II came to power in May 2009, the price of petrol per litre was Rs 40 and now it has reached around Rs 70,” said SP State president Rabi Behera in a statement. Left parties also staged demonstrations here and other places opposing the petrol price hike. Almost all the non-Congress parties took to the streets opposing the hike and demanding immediate rollback.
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