Commoners unable to afford single domestic LPG cylinder refill: Congress slams govt over inflation

The Congress on Thursday attacked the Centre over high prices of cooking gas, saying two Indias have been created- one, in which a selected few are getting richer, and the other, where common people are unable to afford even a single refill of domestic LPG cylinder.

Sharing a media report which claimed that 3.9 crore customers could not afford a refill in 2021-22, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took a dig at the Centre over the advertisement spending on 'Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana' launched in 2016, saying "crores of rupees were spent on this scheme", from petrol pumps to newspapers.

With the launch of Ujjwala 2.0 on August 10 last year, several crore rupees were again spent on advertisements from the taxpayers' money, the former Congress chief said.

Gradually, cylinder prices increased and today the cost of filling one cylinder is over Rs 1,000, Rahul Gandhi said in a Facebook post in Hindi.

"I had said that the Prime Minister has created two Indias, one for the rich and one for the poor. In one of his rallies, the prime minister became a bit emotional for the mothers who cook on the stoves but today, in just one year (2021-22), he has forced 3.59 crore people to light the stove. How do you shed so many fake tears, Mr Prime Minister?" Rahul Gandhi said.

Earlier, sharing the same media report, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter, "Today, there are two Indias in the country. One, where a few selected friends of 'Vishvguru' are getting richer everyday and another where the common people of the country are not able to afford even one refill of domestic gas cylinder."

The Congress has been attacking the government over the rising prices of essential commodities and demanding a rollback of price hike.