West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee rode pillion on an electric scooter in the streets of Kolkata, to protest against rise in fuel prices.
Banerjee was seen sitting behind state minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, who rode the battery-powered electric scooter.
“With a placard protesting against the petrol price hike hanging around her neck, helmet-clad Banerjee waved at people on both sides of the road during the five-km-long journey from Hazra More to the state secretariat”
কবে দেখেছিলেন একটা রাজ্যের মুখ্যমন্ত্রীকে সাধারণ মানুষের দুঃখের পাশে এরকমভাবে দাঁড়াতে!
পেট্রোল ডিজেল এলপিজি-র আকাশছোঁয়া মূল্যবৃদ্ধির প্রতিবাদে মাননীয়া @MamataOfficial ব্যাটারি-চালিত স্কুটারে চেপে @FirhadHakim এর সাথে নবান্নে গেলেন। pic.twitter.com/k0k6rENr8w
— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) February 25, 2021
“The TMC will continue protesting this vehemently. Charity begins at home. That’s why I took this journey on the battery car. I’m speaking from outside the Secretariat gate because I’m making a political statement,” Mamata said after reaching the Secretariat.
“The way petrol, diesel and gas prices have increased is appalling. Gas cylinders are now costing 800 per unit. Kerosene oil is unavailable,” she said.
“What were the prices when the Modi government came to power? What are the prices now? This is looting the common person. This is putting them in a position of helplessness,” she added.
“Earlier, diesel prices were low because farmers used it to run tractors. Now farmers are also not cared about,” she further said.
On Tuesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi termed the fuel hike as a ‘disaster’ for the people and an ‘opportunity’ for the government.
Sharing a newspaper article that reported that the fare of passenger trains will be doubled, the Congress leader said: “COVID- Disaster for you, opportunity for the government.”
On Sunday, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concern over “every citizen’s anguish and deep distress regarding the spiralling fuel and gas prices.”
