Saamna Editorial Targets Centre Over CNG and Commercial LPG Costs

Shiv Sena (UBT) has taken aim at the Centre over recent increases in CNG and commercial gas prices, terming the move an unkind festive burden for citizens facing drought and mounting economic pressure.

Writing in Saamana, the party's mouthpiece, the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction argued that the government was adding to the hardships of ordinary people in Maharashtra, where drought conditions and high prices are already taking a heavy toll.

The editorial painted a bleak picture. Farmers have no harvest to show for their efforts, and common citizens have little money left after months of strain. Many had been holding on to small savings in the hope of celebrating Diwali with their children, it said, but the recent price increases had weakened that hope.

'Do those in power want the public to not celebrate Diwali this year?' the editorial asked.

The party outlined the cost burden in specific terms. In the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, CNG prices were raised by Re 1 per kilogram, the sixth increase in six months. Commercial LPG cylinders went up by Rs 10.

The editorial also mocked the government's reasoning for keeping domestic cylinder prices unchanged. Higher commercial gas prices, it said, directly increase the cost of dining out, hotel and restaurant meals, and market-bought snacks and sweets during the festival season.

It further recalled a Rs 1,000 hike in commercial cylinder prices in May, adding that a minor reduction afterwards was a pretence, as prices were rising again.

The editorial also pointed to broader pressures. It said that drought conditions and the Iran-US conflict had pushed food inflation to a high of 7.74 per cent. Prices of essentials, pulses and grains, it argued, now feel like luxury items. It further noted that the Reserve Bank of India's repo rate hike had raised interest rates, making EMIs on personal loans and mortgages, including home loans, more expensive.

Targeting political leadership, the party accused the government of double standards. Fuel and other essential prices, it said, had been artificially held down for political gain until the conclusion of elections in five states. Now, it claimed, the 'horse of inflation' had run out of control, and rulers who once claimed to keep fuel prices in check despite Gulf war tensions had become indifferent to inflation after the polls.