BNP Announces 3-Day Protest Prog Demanding Cancellation of Gas Price Hike

BNP on Tuesday announced a three-day demonstration programme in protest against the fresh hike in gas prices.

The party also demanded the government immediately revoke its decision of raising the gas prices and take steps to lower the prices of daily essentials, UNB reports.

As part of the programmes, BNP’s all metropolitan city units, including Dhaka one, will stage demonstrations on June 9 while all district units will also observe the similar programme on June 11.

Besides, all Upazila units of the party will hold protest rallies on June 13.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir came up with the announcement at a press conference at BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office.

He said their party’s all associate bodies will also stage demonstrations to mount pressure on the government to withdraw the gas price hike decision and control the prices of essential commodities.

Fakhrul said prices of all essentials will now go up further as an impact of the fresh gas price hike.

He said their party standing committee at its virtual meeting on Monday voiced concern that the fresh hike in gas prices when people were going through immense sufferings to cope with the rise in prices of daily essentials has hit the lives of ordinary people hard.

The BNP leader said their standing committee also worried that the rise in the prices of gas used in cooking stoves, fertiliser factories, and industrial plants, the gas supplied to power plants will have a huge negative impact on agriculture and industrial production and power supply alongside increasing the cost of living of people.

 “The price of every commodity will increase further. It won’t be possible in any way for people to bear this cost. Our meeting demanded immediate cancellation of the decision to increase the prices of gas and return to the previous prices,” he said.

Amid economic hardships, Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) on Sunday announced to increase the average gas price by 22.78 per cent for retail consumers in the country with back effect from June1.

As per the new tariff, the household consumers using single burner will now pay Tk Tk 990 (7.03 per cent rise), up from Tk 925 a month, while the double-burner users need to pay Tk 1080 (10.77 per cent rise), up from Tk 975.