Senior Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran has said that the Central and State governments are vying with each other to put the people through endless miseries.
At one stage, even when the price of oil slumped internationally, people were made to reel under a State-sponsored price hike, he said, while inaugurating the day-and-night agitation organised by the United Democratic Front (UDF) district committee at Vyttila on Thursday.
When the Centre steeply hikes prices of petroleum products, the State government too did not try to unburden the people by slashing levies. The State government, he said, was trying to be the beneficiary of the Centre’s anti-people policies.
Mr. Sudheeran criticised Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for never taking up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This, despite Kerala, as a consumer State, being at the receiving end of the price rise. Mr. Sudheeran said the previous UDF government had decided thrice not to levy extra cess on petrol and diesel. He accused the Centre and State of governing for the corporates.