the goan I network
PANAJI
The Congress in Goa will not force a bandh on Monday as part of the Opposition party’s nationwide protest against fuel price hikes but will resort to a unique protest with its Seva Dal activists riding on a bullock cart to a petrol pump in the temple town of Mardol.
The Congress will also hold protests at petrol
pumps across the state where partymen will distribute flyers to the public articulating the Modi government’s policy failures and mishandling of the fuel pricing mechanism.
National Joint Secretary of Congress Seva Dal, Rakesh Shetty, said the party in Goa consciously took the decision not to burden the common man with a ‘bandh’ on Monday as Goans will be busy with preparations for the Ganesh Chathurti festival.
“Ganesh Chathurti is an important religious festival for the people of Goa. We will not burden Goans with a bandh. But we will protest in a unique way with Seva Dal volunteers riding on a bullock-cart to a petrol pump,” Shetty said.
Shetty, who is in-charge of the Seva Dal frontal in Goa lashed out at the Narendra Modi government for failing to pass on the global fall in crude oil prices down to the consumer.
“Oil was at $109 per barrel when UPA handed the central government’s baton to Modi. Today it is $70. However price of petrol has shot up from Rs 52 per litre then to Rs 75-77 per litre now,” Shetty said, adding that while the actual cost of petrol was Rs 40, the Centre was imposing massive taxes.
“Why petrol and diesel are not brought under the GST regime is a question the Prime Minister must answer,” Shetty said, while emphasising that Modi has been repeatedly talking of ‘one country one tax’.
Shetty also trained his guns at two senior BJP women ministers - External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani -- who he said took to the streets every time petrol prices rose by one or two rupees during the UPA rule.
“Why are Sushmaji and Iraniji mum now with fuel prices rising in their own regime?” Shetty asked
Meanwhile, Shetty said volunteers of Goa Seva Dal will sit on a token hunger strike with those agitating at the Azad Maidan, Panaji demanding jobs on October 1.
He also said, that the Congress Seva Dal’s Goa unit will launch a clean-up drive on Gandhi Jayanti in Panaji, wherein volunteers will clean up the Mandovi river-front and also launch a “Mandovi Bachao Andolan,” to save the river from the onslaught of the casinos.
Shetty said, the Seva Dal will meet all the Congress MLAs and Goa Pradesh Congress Comittee (GPCC) members to invite them to join the programme.
