Bhubaneswar: Thousands of women belonging to the BJD Mahila Morcha took to the street in the Odisha capital on Friday to protest against the rise in LPG cylinder rates which has caused immense problems for homemakers.
The women’s wing of the ruling BJP took out a large on the thoroughfare of Bhubaneswar today morning shouting slogans like “Down with the NDA government,” “Won’t accept Centre’s step-motherly treatment towards Odisha,” and “Repeal the price of LPG cylinders.” The procession converged into a huge rally outside the Raj Bhawan, where women symbolically cooked food on ovens with firewood.
Addressing the gathering, BJD MLA from Khandapada, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik alleged that the Centre’s move to hike the LPG cylinder rates was contrary to the saffron party’s slogan “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikash.” “The Central government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made tall promises about improving the lives of common people by launching the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. It provided LPG cylinders to the poor, but with the frequent hikes in LPG cylinders now the poor are unable to afford cooking gas in their kitchens,” he said.
He reminded the people that the price of LPG cylinders jumped from Rs 410 in 2014 when the NDA government came to power at the Centre to Rs 1,100 the recent hike of Rs 50 per LPG cylinder. “Earlier only 21 lakh households in the state had LPG connection, but now around 80% of households use cooking gas. The hike in the price of LPG cylinders has put pressure on these households as they are unable to afford clean fuel any longer,” Patnaik said.
BJD Spokesperson Shreemayee Mishra said that the Centre was cheating the people of the country, especially the residents of Odisha by first stopping free rice to the poor and now by hiking the price of LPG cylinders. She said that the BJD has been supporting many of the decisions of the Centre, but it would not support the anti-people policies of the Modi government.
