A meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on petroleum and natural gas scheduled for Tuesday is expected to be stormy, as Opposition parties are determined to protest against the recent rise in the prices of cooking gas, kerosene and auto fuel.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena and Left parties, which have claimed today’s nationwide strike to protest against the price rise a success, would seek explanations from officials of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
“People have protested against the price rise by participating in Monday’s Bharat Bandh. It’s a clear warning to the Centre to revisit its anti-people policies. I will certainly take up the issue at Tuesday’s meeting as the issue needs to be debated,” Ramesh Bais, a senior BJP MP, told Business Standard.
Bais, who was involved in organising the nationwide shutdown along with the party’s senior leaders, said the Centre would have to roll back the price rise as the people were already burdened due to inflation, especially the food inflation. He informed that the party would aggressively take up the issue during the ensuing monsoon session of Parliament.
Further, Shiv Sena MP and former Union minister Anand Adsul also said that he, on his behalf of his party, would protest against the price rise at Tuesday’s meeting. “Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has already made the party’s position clear on price rise. The party wholeheartedly participated in the Bharat Bandh. The meeting is taking place just after that and it is an opportunity for me to oppose price rise. The government will have no alternative but to roll back the price rise,” he added.
The Trinamool Congress, the second-largest ally of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, has expressed concern over price rise with a rider that it would not break the UPA. It is likely to reiterate its position at the meeting. Ministry sources said the committee was scheduled to take up discussion on the Petroleum & Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of rights of user in land) Amendment Bill, 2010.