MT News Service
Udhampur, March 3:
Enraged over the continuous hike in the prices of petrol, diesel, LPG and other essential items of day to day use, the activists of NPP led by Mr. Harsh Dev Singh Chairman-JKNPP and Mrs. Manju Singh General Secretary-JKNPP staged a massive protest demonstration in Ramnagar Town today. Hundreds of protestors including young, old women folk assembled at Bus stand and took out a procession up to SDM Office, They blocked the road for around two hours suspending the vehicular traffic to show their resentment against the anti people polices of the govt. Raising slogans against the BJP govt, the protestors sought immediate roll back of the enhanced prices of all essentials commensurate with the tall slogans of the saffron leaders made at the time of Elections.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Harsh Dev said that curbing inflation and ushering “Achhe Din” were the major poll planks of the BJP leaders on the strength of which they ascended the throne of power. He reminisced that top BJP leadership at the centre held massive protests while in opposition days blaming the then govt of failure to control the prices of petrol, diesel and LGP. It was ironical that after their ascendance to power, the very same leaders imposed huge taxes upon the said essential commodities raising their prices to unprecedented level; lamented Mr. Singh. He said that the duplicity and hypocrisy of these dual faced leaders had been fully exposed and their real character revealed in their true colours. “The BJP had proved itself as the party of the rich and the corporates without bothering for the woes and sufferings of the poor and middle class people. It was eliminating poor and not the poverty”, asserted Singh. Accusing the BJP regime of having cheated the poor and marginalized sections through its seductive slogans during elections, Mr. Singh said that it did exactly the reverse of what it promised. Rather than reducing the tax burden, it imposed huge taxes upon goods and services of common use to fill its coffers at the cost of the poor and middle class people. And despite its slogans of youth empowerment and two crore jobs per year, it cased unprecedented unemployment with huge retrenchments occurring in public as well as private sector. Escalation of prices of essentials in the times of economic slowdown faced by the vaned sections of society was the greatest onslaught on the suffering people sparking massive outrage which could have serious ramifications in the days to come.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Mrs. Manju Singh, Neelam Devi Chairperson BDC Parly Dhar, Des Raj Chairman BDC Ramnagar, Rampaul Bhagat, Dev Singh, Pushpinder Singh, Vinod Jamwal, Shiv, Dev, Mohit Mankotia, Subash Sharma, Sanjay, Sunil Singh besides others.