West Bengal: BJP MP alleges party rally stopped by police in Siliguri

BJP MP from Darjeeling Raju Bista on Saturday alleged that a party rally was stopped by the police while they were holding the protest against the state government's refusal to reduce taxes on fuel prices.

While slamming Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led government, Bista said, "No matter what we do for people, TMC has always tried to stop us. Even they are famous for doing this on regular basis. They have stopped Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Amit shah. They will stop us also."

"I want to mention that no matter how much effort they put to stop us, we will not leave the government, they will have to answer," Bista said.

He further criticised Banerjee and said, "This government has looted people's money of Rs 5 lakh crore. We are not even coming into that. What we are talking about right now is the prices of petrol and diesel," he added.

The BJP MP said, "The party will continue their protest till the government reduce prices on fuels."

"We have been protested peacefully but the police are here to stop us. This shows the police are not for people, they are TMC police," he alleged.

In a significant decision, the Centre on Wednesday reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel to bring down the prices of the two petroleum products which had been seeing an upward trend.

The relief to consumers came on the eve of Diwali. The Finance Ministry said that excise duty on petrol will come down by Rs 5 and that on diesel by Rs 10 and it will be effective from Thursday.

It urged the states "to commensurately reduce" VAT on petrol and diesel to give relief to consumers.

( With inputs from ANI )

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