The Rs. 3 hike in petrol that kicked in at midnight provoked political and public outrage today. An immediate consequence was that the government deferred indefinitely a meeting of ministers that was to consider making cooking gas more expensive for the average household.
The BJP threatened to organise protests in Delhi today. In Lucknow, members of the Samajwadi Party were lathi-charged as they tried to burn an effigy of the Prime Minister.
But for the government, the biggest concern was the anger expressed openly by its main allies, the DMK and Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC). So it called off an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) meeting this morning that was to debate whether households should be entitled to between 4-6 subsidised LPG cylinders every year, and pay market rates for refills after that. Subsidised cooking gas cylinders currently cost Rs. 395.35 each; if the new proposal is passed, households would pay over Rs. 650 per cylinder after exhausting their quota.
If the meeting chaired by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had been held today, the DMK was planning to boycott it; the Trinamool Congress said it would've used the occasion to convey anger - both were unequivocal that a rise in LPG prices was not acceptable.
for detailed price charts.
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