Protests against petroleum price hike across the country : BJP

New Delhi, June 7 (UNI) The BJP today organised countrywide protests in over 450 cities over the hike in the prices of petrol and diesel by the two-year-old UPA Government.

BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said protests in various forms would continue for one more week to vent public anger against the unjustified hike.

The BJP workers blocked traffic on main roads, took out processions and burnt effigies of the UPA government to register their anger and to highlight the problems caused to the people by the Centre which claimed to ''work for the common man''. Thousands of partyworkers courted arrests against the hike.

In Delhi, BJP President Rajnath Singh blocked the traffic at Moti Nagar Chowk.

NDA leaders met at the residence of Leader of Opposition L K Advani's residence to chart out a joint action programme against the hike. The party is of the view that the government needlessly imposed the hike without exploring ways of reducing customs, excise and sales taxes on the products which have increased the costs of petroleum products by almost 60 per cent.

Petroleum products in India have now become among the costliest in the world, the party added.

The party pooh-poohed the demand of the Congress and Left parties to review the price increase because the increase could not have taken place at all without the blessings of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Left Parties, which supports the UPA government from outside but pretends to oppose the hike.

''Petroleum Minister Murli Deora is such a light weight, that nobody will take his denial of a roll back seriously,'' BJP spokesman and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

''There will be a partial roll back and the Congress and the Left Parties would want to hog the credit for themselves,'' he remarked.

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