BHUBANESWAR: With an eye on panchayat elections scheduled for early next year, the BJD has decided to launch a Statewide agitation against the hike in petrol prices. This is the second hike in last four months. Criticising the Centre for enhancing the petrol price by Rs. 3.14 per litre from Thursday midnight, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has demanded a rollback as it will further increase the burden on the common man. Expressing concern over the impact on the people, Naveen said the rate of inflation has already touched 10 per cent. The Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD), the youth wing of the party, on Friday demonstrated here against the petrol price hike and demanded an immediate rollback. BYJD activists burnt the effigy of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in protest. A rally was brought out from the Sishu Bhavan square to the Master Canteen square by the BYJD activists. Besides the BYJD president Sanjay Dasburma, party MLAs __ Ashok Panda and Bijay Mohanty __ Mayor Anant Narayan Jena, BYJD general secretary Bijay Nayak and president of the Bhubaneswar district BYJD Babu Singh addressed the rally. The Left parties have also demanded an immediate withdrawal of the hike. While the CPM has criticised the hike as ‘anti-poor’, general secretary of the Orissa State committee of the All India Forward Bloc Santosh Mitra has called upon all political parties and people of the State to launch a Statewide agitation against the Centre’s decision. The hike has confirmed that the UPA is working against the interest of the common man by serving the interests of the multinational companies, he said. Criticising the hike, the Samruddha Odisha (SO) sarcastically remarked this is a reward to Orissa which is trying to cope with the devastating flood. Secretary general of SO Prabir Mohanty announced that the party will soon call a Statewide agitation against the ‘anti-people’ decision. He reminded that the price of petrol was hiked by Rs. 5 per litre in May.
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