The major concern of a person belonging to the working class is the hike in the prices of his basic necessities. As time passed, man included more and more things into his category of basic needs.
Fuel is one such need of man, raising the prices of which can cause havoc in his life.
The recent hike in fuel prices has led to an outburst of questions in the mind of the majority of India’s population who belong to the lower and middle classes.
What is the reason behind this sudden increase in fuel prices? Is it because the Government has no other choice, or is it a strategic step behind which there’s a rational cause? Can we call it an imitation of our neighbours who are easily able to deal with this?
Whatever it is, the sufferer is no one but the common man! In such a situation, he has the complete right to complain that the high taxes accompanied by the fuel prices reaching the sky is looting him to poverty. There’s a rift between the citizens and the government created by this issue.
On one hand, we have the public insisting the indirect increase in tax would be a better way to collect money rather than an increase in the cost of today’s most important commodity. On the other hand, we have our politicians like the Oil Minister, Dr S Jaipal Reddy, trying to convince the nation to agree to the opposite.
IOC may hike petrol prices again next month:
Talking about the direct and visible effect of the government’s apparently rational decision, people just fear taking their vehicles out of their garages! The entire life of an individual is restricted as he’s unable to get his space to move around for work, not considering his recreational needs, which are not even remotely imaginable for him in these adverse circumstances. In places like Ahmadabad and Delhi, people have reverted to online shopping, fearing using their vehicles to commute to malls.
So much that Ahmadabad ranks second in propellers of online shopping, followed by Delhi. Reports are screaming out a five percent increase in petrol prices by some state-owned oil companies.
As if this was not enough to trouble the common man, experts are estimating a further increase by 10 percent possibly in the near future. It is said that this ruthless loot, if I may call it so, was supposed to take place much earlier, but the election of UPA delayed it for a while!
This is the ninth hike in petrol prices this year, and the government still doesn’t seem to be satisfied. So what is the common man supposed to do in situations like this? Is bringing life to a standstill without moving around the only solution? Will the street protests against the price hike be of any effect on the government? Can we ever provoke it to think in favour of the consumer?
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