Protesters Target BJP, Ujjwala Scheme As BJD Begins Stir Against LPG Prices In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Hundreds of BJD activists on Monday took out rallies in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, attacking the BJP-led Centre over rising prices of cooking gas.

Members of the Biju Mahila Janata Dal, Biju Yuva Janata Dal and Biju Chhatra Janata Dal hit the streets, warning that the protests will not stop until the Centre brought down the prices of LPG cylinders.

The protesters tore into the Centre’s Ujjwala scheme, pointing out that the prices of cooking gas cylinders have gone up by over 70 per cent in the last three years. “From Rs 350, LPG cylinders now cost over Rs 1,000,” a protester said.

Holding large posters of gas cylinders that said “RIP LPG”, raising slogans against the Centre and slamming the Ujjwala scheme, the protesters walked like “mourners” carrying a cylinder as a “corpse” on their shoulders.

The BJD launched the three-day agitation across the state against rising LPG prices on a day the state BJP unit began a ‘Halla Bol’ protest to target the Naveen Patnaik government in the Kalahandi schoolteacher Mamita Meher murder case. The ruling party plans to take the protests to villages also.

BJD activists held demonstrations at three places in Bhubaneswar, outside the IOCL office in Chandrasekharpur, and at Unit-5 and Kalpana Square. Protests were also held outside the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Central Range) office in Cuttack.

The party plans similar protests in Sambalpur tomorrow and in Berhampur on Wednesday.

Asked whether the BJD timed the protests to deflect attention from the Mamita case ahead of panchayat and local body polls, a protester said, “The Mamita case is about giving justice to one woman. But rising prices of cooking gas has affected thousands of poor and middle-class women.”

Targeting the Ujjwala scheme, another woman protester said, “Our protests will definitely put pressure on the Centre to bring down prices.”