Indian states strike against fuel price hike: officials
KOLKATA (AFP) — The Indian government faced angry protests over a move to hike fuel prices as general strikes organised by its communist allies paralysed three states Thursday, officials and witnesses said.
India imports 70 percent of the oil needed for its fast-growing economy but amid surging crude costs announced hikes of 11 percent and 9.4 percent in petrol and diesel prices respectively based on prices in the capital.
Shops, schools and offices in eastern West Bengal, northeastern Tripura and southern Kerala states shut down, kicking off a planned week of nationwide protests against the price increases organised by communist parties.
In Kerala's state capital Thiruvananthapuram, vehicles were off the roads and shops and schools closed with leftist leader Vaikom Viswan describing the shutdown "as complete."
"We have planned a week-long protest against the fuel price hike and the state is worst affected," he said.
In Tripura, senior Marxist Bijon Dhar told AFP: "The strike is total with all shops and businesses, financial and educational institutions remaining closed."
In neighbouring West Bengal's state capital Kolkata, shopping malls, together with government and private offices, also shut to protest the second hike in fuel prices this year.
"Train services were disrupted as protesters squatted on railway tracks," said senior railway official Deepak Kumar Jha.
Airport director V.K. Monga said many airlines cancelled flights out of Kolkata due to the strike against the decision by the Congress-led government to raise fuel prices to stem huge losses at oil firms run at the federal level.
Work was also disrupted in industrial northwestern belts of the state with workers staging protests, said Marxist leader Biman Bose.
"Industrial units are virtually closed in these townships."
The state's vital tea-producing industry was also hit. Sujit Patra, a spokesman for the Indian Tea Association, said many employees did not report or work at the gardens in northern districts.
Cargo handling at the Kolkata and Haldia ports was also disrupted.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a televised nationwide address Wednesday defended the hike, saying India "was vulnerable to global trends" and a domestic price rise was "inevitable," noting crude costs had tripled since May 2004.
He said Indian oil firms, which sell fuel at hugely discounted, federal government-fixed rates, were under massive financial strain but promised to try to shield the poor from the price rise's impact.
But the left-leaning parties propping up the minority government in parliament slammed the rises.
They said the hikes would "further aggravate" the "onslaught on the people," already suffering from steep food price rises, and stoke inflation riding near a four-year peak of 8.1 percent.
The left-leaning Congress had been debating for weeks how to bail out the oil firms.
It feared that raising fuel prices would trigger a voter backlash. National elections loom within a year and public anger over inflation is already high.
According to the Indian Express newspaper, "in political terms the Congress-led government deserves some credit.
"The (price) adjustments were more than what most politicians can stomach," the daily said, adding keeping prices unchanged was no guarantee of electoral success.
