Petrol price hike: Two hartals in a row anger common man in Kerala

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Two hartals in three days have riled the public already distressed by the fuel price hike.

“No issue can be solved by a hartal,” said human rights activist B.R.P.Bhaskar. “As a result of the hartals, several PSC and university examinations have been postponed. Political parties are calling hartals for narrow interests.”

The principal opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF), BJP and various unions of motor workers have called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in the State on Monday to protest the petrol price hike.

LDF observed a hartal in Thiruvananthapuram district on Saturday against police action on demonstrations by DYFI-SFI against petrol price hike.

Kerala has so far witnessed 18 statewide and regional hartals in 2011. LDF had earlier observed a statewide hartal for a ban on endosulfan on April 29.

“Causing inconvenience to the common man is the lone gain of a hartal,” said Manjith Balachandran, who works with an IT firm in Thiruvananthapuram. “Even on hartal days we are supposed to work. Otherwise, we lose the day’s salary.”

“A hartal in Kerala will not bring down petrol price. It will only convey wrong signals about the State,” said leading technocrat V.K. Mathews.

In view of the widespread attacks on buses in Thiruvananthapuram district on Saturday, KSRTC decided to operate services on Monday only after ensuring police protection.

“Hartals are causing a huge loss to KSRTC both in terms of revenue and attacks on vehicles and employees,” said managing director Alexander K. Luke.