{"id":280585,"date":"2026-04-02T00:58:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=280585"},"modified":"2026-04-02T00:58:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:28:58","slug":"cong-slams-price-hike-of-essential-commodities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2026\/04\/02\/cong-slams-price-hike-of-essential-commodities\/","title":{"rendered":"Cong slams price hike of essential commodities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>NEW DELHI, 1 Apr:<\/strong> The Congress on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the government over the rise in prices of certain essential commodities, alleging that the Modi government has completely &#8220;destroyed&#8221; the country&#8217;s strategic and economic policies.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said while the common citizens are hoping for relief, the BJP leadership remains entirely focused on &#8220;looting the public and plundering the nation amidst this crisis.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a post in Hindi on X, Kharge said, &#8220;The Modi government has completely dismantled the country&#8217;s strategic and economic policies &#8211; a direct consequence of which is now being borne by 1.4 billion Indians.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Starting today, the prices of several essential daily commodities are set to rise,&#8221; he said in a post in Hindi on X.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Commercial LPG cylinder prices skyrocket, while supplies\u00a0 hit rock bottom. From the cost of tea at roadside eateries&#8230; to a severe adverse impact on the midday meal scheme. Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) gets costlier. Air travel &#8211; once made accessible to the common man &#8211; has now become an elusive dream. The government has even lifted the price cap.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8220;Over 900 essential medicines become more expensive; healthcare costs have surged further; prices of coronary stents have gone up; you will have to pay higher toll taxes; &#8216;highway robbery&#8217; is in full swing; speed post charges have also seen a 34% hike: severe impact on plastic goods, steel, and ceramics; PVC pipes for farmers have become more expensive; bitumen prices have risen by up to 50%; the construction sector faces immense pressure,&#8221; Kharge said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At a time when the common citizens, farmers, labourers, and MSME industries remain in the hope of relief, the BJP leadership &#8211; while grossly ignoring their plight -&#8220;remains entirely focused on looting the public and plundering the nation amidst this crisis,&#8221; Kharge said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He shared a video montage on the hike captioned &#8216;BJP loot diwas&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Prices of commercial LPG were hiked by Rs 195.50 on Wednesday, on back of a surge in global oil prices linked to the widening West Asia conflict.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A 19-kg commercial LPG now costs Rs 2,078.50 in Delhi, according to state-owned oil companies. Rates were last increased by Rs 114.5 per 19-kg cylinder on 1 March.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Domestic cooking gas LPG rates, which were last hiked by Rs 60 per 14.2-kg cylinder on 7 March, remain unchanged. It costs Rs 913 per 14.2-kg cylinder in Delhi.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Price of ATF, or jet fuel, was more than doubled to a record Rs 2.07 lakh per kilolitre on Wednesday, mirroring the surge in global oil prices last month, but for domestic airlines, the increase would only be 8.5 percent.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Domestic airlines will pay half of what other carriers such as non-scheduled, ad hoc and charter would pay. For them the prices have gone up by Rs 110,703.08 per kl, or 114.5 percent, to Rs 207,341.22 per kl.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Jet fuel prices were deregulated more than two decades back, and since then, the rates are aligned with benchmark international prices, as per a written understanding with the airlines.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">But since the Middle East war induced surge in global energy prices warranted a steepest increase ever to be made in the ATF prices, the government and state-owned oil companies decided to adopt a calibrated approach, industry sources said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Global oil prices have shot up by almost 50 percent after the war in West Asia disrupted energy supply chains. Petrol and diesel prices continue to remain frozen after a Rs 2 per-litre reduction in March last year; petrol currently costs Rs 94.72 per litre in Delhi and diesel Rs 87.62. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW DELHI, 1 Apr: The Congress on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the government over the rise in prices of certain essential commodities, alleging that the Modi government has completely &#8220;destroyed&#8221; the country&#8217;s strategic and economic policies. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said while the common citizens are hoping for relief, the BJP leadership remains [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-280585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280585"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280606,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280585\/revisions\/280606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}