Left begins agitation; All India Protest on Jun 13

New Delhi, Jun 5: The Left Parties and their affiliated trade unions will launch, from tomorrow, an agitation against the UPA government's decision to hike the petrol and diesel prices, culminating in an All India Protest Day action on June 13.

''The price hike could have been avoided but the government was adamant,'' Left leaders A B Bardhan and M K Pandhe told UNI soon after the goverment made an annoucement to the effect.

The sponsoring Committee of the Trade Unions also resolved today to launch an agitation against the decision, which could have been avoided if the Government had chosen to act on the five suggestions of the Left.

Rallies, protest meetings, dharnas and processions will comprise the agitation methods.

''This is the fourth hike the government have announced during the two years. Every time, the Left parties had suggested alternative mechanisms. But the Congress-led coalition was adamant as it maintains that the price hike was unavoidable in the wake of rise in prices of petroleum products in the international market,'' Mr Bardhan, the General Secretary of the CPI said.

''We do not agree with the government's view point,'' he said, adding that even today, they had written to the Prime Minister enlisting five suggestions.

Mr Bardhan said the price hike would have a cascecading effect on the prices of essential commodities. ''The existing prices are already high. The prices of atta, pulses and other such items are sky-rocketing, having gone beyond the reach of man in the street and the middle classes.'' Mr Pandhe, a CPI(M) Politburo member, who is also the CITU president, said a meeting of the Left TUs today decided to start a spontaneous agitation from tomorrow.

UNI

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