THE HIMACHAL Pradesh Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) on Sunday said it would strongly oppose the proposal to increase price of petrol in the state. It would hit the common man. We will strongly oppose any such move by the Congress-led UPA government which will crush the common man, especially the poor, the middle class and the farmers who are already reeling under the high inflation in the country, said State Vice President of BJP Kripal Parmar while addressing media at Dharmshala.

It is very clearly being done at the behest of the multi -national companies on the expense of the poor people of the country, he said. BJP Leader Parmar said the common man of the country was bearing the brunt of the wrong economic policies of this government which had led to an increase in the prices of petrol more than 20 times during the last five years.

He said that due to mishandling of the oil policy by the UPA government, the prices of the essential commodities had skyrocketed during the recent times and it had become impossible for the poor citizens of the country to even have a two meal diet per day. He claimed that four years of the Dhumal-led BJP Government in Himachal was a “golden period” for the state. He expressed confidence that the good work done by the government will enable it to win the Assembly polls, due next year.

Parmar said that the “excellent performance” of the government on various fronts had placed Himachal as the leading state in the country and the 50-odd awards it had received from various organizations provided ample testimony to it. Apart from speeding up development activities, it had demolished the barriers of regionalism and casteism which had created an emotional divide in the state. During its current term, the government had implemented several policies and programmes for the welfare of senior citizens, women, the youth and weaker sections, particularly the scheduled castes and the backward classes, he added.

Parmar lambasted the Congress for demanding a White Paper on the development carried out by the government and said the achievements spoke for it. As against 3,663 jobs provided by the previous Congress government, the present regime gave employment to over 29,000 persons, which was nine times the achievement of the Congress.