The Hindu : National : ‘Why didn't Mamata call for rollback?'

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National

‘Why didn't Mamata call for rollback?'

Staff Reporter

Biman Bose

KOLKATA: Announcing plans to launch an intensive campaign against the latest increase in fuel prices announced by the Centre, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member and West Bengal Left Front Committee chairman Biman Bose said on Sunday that if Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was against the decision, she should have written to the Prime Minister.

The Chief Minister's announcement here on Saturday to waive the State-government-imposed tax on cooking gas, he said, was not enough.

“She has protested only for the benefit of the media. Why did she not ask for a withdrawal of the latest decision to increase fuel prices? Why has she not called for a rollback?”

If the State government was serious, the Chief Minister should have written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding that the increase in fuel prices be withdrawn, Mr. Bose told journalists.

The government should have registered its protest with the Centre, as the Left Front government had done in the past, he said.

Asked about the State reducing cess, Mr. Bose said the Left Front government too had cut back on State taxes in the wake of a fuel price hike.

The former Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and the former Health Minister, Surya Kanta Mishra, were present at a protest march here on Saturday.

Campaign from July 4

The intensive campaign, scheduled from July 4 to 11, will include sit-in demonstrations at Central government offices. The campaign was scheduled keeping in mind farmers' sowing season.

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