RS adjourned over fuel price hike, Oppn walks out of LS

Opposition parties protested in Lok Sabha on Tuesday against the increase in prices of fuel and cooking gas and staged a walkout demanding a rollback. Raising the issue after Question Hour, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the opposition parties had been claiming that the prices of diesel and petrol would increase after the election process. Members of the Congress, TMC, NCP, DMK and Left parties raised slogans from their seats against the fuel price hike and demanded a rollback.The opposition parties had tried to raise the issue of as soon as Lok Sabha met for Question Hour, but were disallowed by Speaker Om Birla. Birla had told the opposition parties to raise the issue after Question Hour.

In Rajya Sabha also slogan shouting opposition MPs trooping into the well of the House, proceedings were first adjourned till 12 noon and then till post-lunch. When the House met after the first adjournment, Deputy Chairman Harivansh called for the listed Question Hour to be taken and asked opposition parties to not disrupt the proceedings. Earlier in the morning when the House met for zero hour proceedings, the Upper House was adjourned for a little less than an hour. While TMC members stormed into the well of the House carrying placards, Congress, Left, Samajwadi Party and Shiv Sena MPs were up on their feet, some shouting slogans.This happened after Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said he has not accepted notices given by Shaktisinh Gohil (Congress), Dola Sen (TMC), V Sivadasan, Elamaram Kareem and John Brittas (Communist Party of India-Marxist) under rule 267, requiring setting aside of the listed agenda to take up a discussion.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also targetted the government. "If you ask the prime minister, he will say...bang thalis." "The 'lockdown' imposed on the prices of gas, diesel and petrol has been lifted. Now the government will continuously 'develop' the prices," Gandhi tweeted in Hindi. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav slammed the ruling BJP over the hike in domestic cooking gas price, terming it "another gift of inflation" for the people after the state elections.
Petrol and diesel prices were on Tuesday hiked by 80 paise a litre while domestic cooking gas prices were increased by Rs 50 per cylinder, ending an over four-and-half month election-related hiatus in rate revision. Fuel prices had remained unchanged since November 2021 despite global crude oil prices breaching the three-figure mark and touching multi-year highs. However, many had been anticipating a rise in prices after hostilities between Russia and Ukraine increased global prices.