AAP to lay siege to petroleum ministry on September 26  

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday said it will lay siege to the union petroleum ministry here on September 26 as part of its nationwide campaign against high fuel prices starting on Friday.

Senior party leader Gopal Rai said the central government had increased the excise tax on petrol by 150 per cent since it came to power in 2014.He said the protests would be held across the nation from September 22 to 30."On September 30 (Dusshera), we will burn effigies of 'Ravan of price rise' in all 272 wards of Delhi," he said.

On Friday, all AAP MLAs in Delhi will hold protests in their Assembly constituencies. On Tuesday, they will 'gherao' the union petroleum ministry.Asked if the Delhi government would reduce the state tax on petrol, Rai told IANS that the tax was already less and petrol was comparatively cheaper in Delhi.

Rai also condemned Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's statement that the central government won't decrease the excise duty on petrol and diesel and state governments have to decrease VAT if they wanted to reduce price of petrol and diesel.

Rai reiterated the AAP's demand that fuel prices should be linked to international crude oil price which he said had fallen by over 50 per cent in the last three years.