Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) today announced that it will stage demonstrations across Odisha for three days against steep rise in fuel prices as it affected the common people.

The State’s ruling party also said it will stage dharna outside Raj Bhawan here on May 28 opposing the Centre’s inaction to control the rising prices.

“We will stage protest near Raj Bhavan on May 28 against the recent price hike of petrol and diesel by Modi Government. And, our party activists will stage dharna in all 314 blocks from May 28 to 30 in this regard,” said party General Secretary Sanjay Das Burma while addressing a press conference at party office here this evening.

Alleging the Central governmnet is totally insensitive towards the common people of the country, the BJD leader said the NDA government is exploiting people by increasing excise duty and levying cess on petrol and diesel.

He said the Modi government has increased excise duty on petrol by 200 percent to Rs 19.48 per litre against just Rs 9.2 per litre in July, 2014. Similarly, excise duty on diesel has increased from Rs 3.46 per litre to Rs 15.33 per litre during the same period.

Slamming Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who happens to be an Odia, for asking the State governmnet to decrease VAT on fuel, Das Burma said: “Odisha is already charging a very low VAT on petrol and diesel.”

The prices of per litre petrol and diesel in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday were Rs 76.02 and Rs 73.03 respectively.

Petrol prices in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai have already reached unprecendentd levels. Petrol price in India's financial capital Mumbai touched Rs 84.99 a litre on Wednesday.