Kathmandu, August 19:

The Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, RPP, Nepal Workers’ and Peasants Party’, the Maoists, student unions and indigenous communities today lambasted the government for hiking the price of petroleum products.

In a statement, the NC flayed the government for effecting the hike without taking into consideration the hardships the middle and lower classes will have to face because of the move.

The statement issued by Shobhakar Parajauli of the NC lamented the way the government decided to hike the prices of petroleum products. “We will go against the decision.”

A standing committee member of the CPN-UML, Ishwor Pokharel, said the government should have made a provision of providing petroleum products to the students and low-income bracket at a subsidised rate. Pokharel made this remark while inaugurating the CPN-UML conference of the Kathmandu Metropolis-5.

Asked to comment on the decision, Jhala Nath Khanal, a leader of the CPN-UML, said, “Though we are in the government, we did not anticipate the impact the move will have. The way the decision was taken has indeed shocked me.” The decision was taken without any groundwork, he said.

Condemning the government for hiking the prices of petroleum products, RPP president Pashupati Shumsher Rana today said the hike was a testimony of failure of the government comprising seven political parties. Calling on the government to roll back the decision immediately, he warned that his party might opt for protests in a week or two if its voice were not heard.

Talking to mediapersons at his residence, Rana termed the government decision of effecting the hike an instance of “injustice” and “crime” against the people, who, by sustaining injuries or attaining martyrdom during the movement, gave the leaders of the seven political parties the opportunity to form the government.

The government should have thought about some other alternatives like decreasing the revenue being collected from the Nepal Oil Corporation, curbing corruption at the corporation, minimising operation costs or trimming the workforce of the corporation, he said.

Within four months of the formation of “democratic” government, the country has landed into the hands of mobs, he said, adding, “The mobs today even prohibited the press staffers, who moved freely even during the Jana Andolan, from moving around. The instance shows how irresponsible the government is.”

A number of student organisations and representatives of ethnic communities and the Maoists also criticised the government for effecting the hike. They have demanded the resignation of Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Hridyaesh Tripathi.