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Congress leader Sachin Pilot came down heavily on the Narendra Modi government on Monday on the issue of rising inflation, saying it has given no respite to people on that front.
The former Rajasthan deputy chief minister, who held a door-to-door campaign in the busy Paltan Bazar area here and released a “white-paper” booklet on price rise, said the inflation rates in Uttarakhand are higher than the national average.
People are reeling under an acute inflation with a manifold rise in the prices of everything, including petrol, diesel, cooking gas, fruits, vegetables, oil and sugar, but the government has not given any relief to them, he added.
“It is the same BJP that hit the streets during the Manmohan Singh government to raise a hue and cry over an increase in the prices of petrol and diesel by 25 paise per litre,” the former Union minister said.
Petrol and diesel have become more expensive than desi ghee, he added.
Pilot said if the Congress forms the government in Uttarakhand, the price of cooking gas would not be allowed to exceed Rs 500 per cylinder and this would bring great relief to the public.
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference at Haldwani in Nainital district, state Congress spokesperson Charan Singh Sapra alleged that the BJP governments at the Centre and in the state are “picking the pockets” of the poor to fill their coffers.
Giving a call to people to oust the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from power if they want to defeat inflation, he said the prices of essential commodities like pulses and edible oil have risen like never before, besides those of petrol, diesel and LPG.
The Modi government follows the policy of making the poor poorer and the rich richer, Sapra alleged.
“Wherever there are double-engine governments, only the Ambanis and the Adanis have benefitted,” he said, referring to the saffron party being in power at the Centre as well as in the state.
The change of chief ministers by the BJP in Uttarakhand was a cover-up for its failures, he alleged.
“The BJP does nothing. It only changes chief ministers or the names of places,” Sapra said.
Talking about corruption, he said Uttarakhand is the only state in the country where a COVID-19 testing scam took place.
Sapra appealed to the people of Haldwani to vote for Sumit Hridayesh, the son of the Congress MLA from the seat and senior party leader Indira Hridayesh who died last year.
Poll campaigning is likely to pick up in Uttarakhand from February 2, when All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will release the party’s manifesto here, besides addressing a virtual rally.
The 67-member Uttarakhand Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on February 14 and the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10.
