All India Protest Day Observed Against Petro Price-Hike

RESPONDING to the joint call of central trade unions viz., CITU, AITUC, HMS, AICCTU, UTUC, UTUC (LS) and TUCC, to observe all India protest day against the unjust price hike  of petrol, diesel and cooking gas, massive demonstrations were held through out the country in almost all state capitals, district headquarters and industrial centres on November 24, 2004.

In the capital city of New Delhi, workers from various corners of Delhi assembled in thousands at Jantar Mantar and marched towards parliament to converge into a rally in Patel Chowk.

The rally was addressed by Tapan Sen (CITU), Amarjit Kaur (AITUC), Asit Ganguly (UTUC), Swapan Mukherjee (AICCTU), Devarajan (TUCC) and R K Sharma, UTUC-LS.  The speakers denounced the unjust and hefty price hike of petroleum, diesel and cooking gas which imposed heavy burden on mass of the populace. The plea of rise in international price of crude oil taken by the UPA government to justify the price hike is entirely baseless, the speakers asserted. Such anti-people price-hike could very well be averted  by reducing the customs duty on the crude oil import to zero level without affecting much the national exchequer, they felt. “All talks of retaining profitability of oil PSUs to justify such price hike is also just playing on figures, which has got no real import at all. This is being done to hoodwink the people and is totally condemnable”, they said.

The central trade unions urged upon the UPA government to see reason, respect the verdict of the people in the last general election and roll back the price hike in petroleum products. The trade unions also called upon the working class to unitedly prepare for countrywide struggle.   (INN)