Price rise: LDF to hold dharna on August 10

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Left front in the state has decided to celebrate the Independence Day in an elaborate manner. The state government and the CPM leadership had recently announced plans to hold various programmes as part of the celebration.

Earlier, the CPM was not in favour of celebrating I-Day. But last year, the party decided to observe the same in an apparent bid to counter the Sangh Parivar’s nationalistic claims. This time too, the party decided to celebrate I-Day by hoisting the Tricolour at party offices. “Those who played no part in the freedom struggle are coming forward to claim the credit for securing independence for the country,” said LDF convener E P Jayarajan. The LDF meeting on Tuesday also decided to conduct a dharna in front of the Raj Bhavan on August 10 against prices hike of essential commodities.

“The Union government has been imposing unnecessary tax burden on the people. Earlier, when the Centre tried to impose GST on essential commodities, many states opposed the same. Now, the Centre has imposed GST without consultations. The government is of the view that tax should not be imposed on essential commodities,” he said.