Bhubaneswar: The state unit of Congress Thursday slammed Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the BJP for the consistent rise in the fuel prices in the country and misleading the people on the reasons for the skyrocketing prices.
Briefing the media Thursday, state Congress spokesperson Satyaprakash Nayak accused Pradhan and his party members of spreading misinformation about
the issue.
“Every day the prices of petrol and diesel are going up. The Union Petroleum and Natural Gas minister has been changing his stance on the skyrocketing fuel prices every week. A few days back, the minister justified the rising petrol prices and cited development works as prime reason for the same,” he said.
He also said that earlier when the global crude oil price was lower, he had defended the fuel price hike saying the government was saving the benefit that could later be used when crude oil prices would go up as a compensation mechanism to regulate the fuel prices.
“He also said that revenue earned from fuel price hike could be used in the Covid vaccination programme while on another occasion he said that it could be used in giving free ration to the people. Even financing the hike in paddy MSP was also cited as one of the prime reasons,” he said.
Nayak said that Pradhan had blamed the UPA government for oil bonds and debt while dealing with oil prices on wrong facts while the oil bond was the brainchild of the BJP.
“The minister has been misleading people by vague statements on the issue. In 2002, under the NDA government at Centre, the system of oil bonds started when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. The whole BJP and their leaders are now misleading the people on the issue of oil bonds. The facts presented by the BJP are manipulated to suit their needs,” he said.
