Rahul Gandhi demands rollback in prices of fuel, leads protest against hike
New Delhi, Mar 31: Stepping up the attack against the government over steep hike in fuel prices, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the rise in petrol and diesel prices has been unprecedented and demanded its roll back.
Leading a protest by Congress MPs on the issue at Vijay Chowk here, he said prices of petrol and diesel have risen nine times in the last 10 days, and the common man is the most affected due to this.
Congress MPs from both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha carrying placards raised slogans against the government and sat on a dharna against the fuel price hike.
Among those present included Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
"Our demand is that the government should control prices and stop raising petrol and diesel prices," Gandhi said while noting that the poor and middle class have been worst hit by the hike.
"We can see that petrol and diesel prices are climbing rapidly. The government is making thousands of crores from this. The Congress is protesting across the country against this price rise of petrol and diesel. The government has to stop doing this. It has to ensure that prices do not rise," he told reporters.
"I had said that when elections will be over, the prices of petrol and diesel will be rising and had asked people to fill up their tanks," he said.
Gandhi shared on Twitter petrol rates in countries in the Indian sub continent.
"Petrol Rate in Indian Rupees (Rs) Afghanistan: 66.99. Pakistan: 62.38. Sri Lanka: 72.96. Bangladesh: 78.53. Bhutan: 86.28. Nepal: 97.05. India: 101.81.
"Don't ask questions to the 'Fakir', who shares knowledge on the camera. Loots India while carrying a bag full of 'jumlas' (rhetoric)," Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi, using hashtag "MehangaiMuktBharat".
Gandhi said this level of price rise in petrol and diesel has been unprecedented, while accusing the government of stealing the money from the poor and handing it over to industrialists.
The Congress is also launching a week-long countrywide protest "Mehngai Mukt Bharat' against inflation and rise in fuel prices, under which it will launch a social media campaign as well as beat plates and drums. It will also garland LPG cylinders across the country at all state and district headquarters to highlight high inflation and rise in fuel prices.
Petrol and diesel prices were on Thursday hiked by 80 paise a litre each, taking the total increase in rates in the last 10 days to Rs 6.40 per litre.
Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending upon local taxation.
This is the ninth increase in prices since the ending of a four-and-half-month long hiatus in rate revision on March 22.
Petrol Rate in Indian Rupees (₹)
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 31, 2022
Afghanistan: 66.99
Pakistan: 62.38
Sri Lanka: 72.96
Bangladesh: 78.53
Bhutan: 86.28
Nepal: 97.05
India: 101.81
प्रश्न न पूछो ‘फ़क़ीर’ से, कैमरा पर बाँटे ज्ञान।
जुमलों से भरा झोला लेकर, लूटे हिंदुस्तान॥#MehangaiMuktBharat
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NEET-UG: 2 more held, role of several NTA officers under scanner; CBI focussing on source of leak
New Delhi (PTI): The CBI has arrested two more persons in connection with the NEET (UG) paper-leak case, with the role of several officers of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and other organisations, who had access to the printing press where the papers were printed, coming under the scanner, officials said on Thursday.
The agency has arrested Dhananjay Lokhanda from Ahilyanagar and Manisha Waghmare from Pune and conducted searches at 14 locations across the country in the last 24 hours, they said.
The CBI is focussing on identifying the source of the leak that has caused massive disappointment to lakhs of aspirants eyeing a seat in undergraduate medical courses, which are allotted after the highly-competitive examination, the officials said.
According to the CBI probe so far, the involvement of public servants in the leak cannot be ruled out.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three individuals from Jaipur -- Mangilal Biwal, Vikas Biwal and Dinesh Biwal -- along with Yash Yadav from Gurugram and Shubham Khairnar from Nashik.
Khairnar was in touch with Yadav and informed him in April that Mangilal Biwal was ready to pay Rs 10-12 lakh for arranging leaked NEET (UG) 2026 questions for his younger son.
Khairnar allegedly provided 500 to 600 questions from the leaked paper to Yadav, the officials said, adding that the questions could have helped score enough marks to get a seat in a reputed medical college.
Mangilal Biwal allegedly procured the paper from Yadav, who was known to his elder son Vikas Biwal from an NEET coaching in Rajasthan's Sikar. The deal between Mangilal Biwal and Yadav was for Rs 10 lakh, if 150 questions from the question bank matched with those in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) paper, the officials said.
Mangilal Biwal shared the paper with his son and further distributed it among relatives.
Yadav also told Vikas Biwal to find additional candidates for the questions to recover some of the money that he had spent on getting those, the officials said.
An analysis of digital devices has given the agency incriminating chats, leaked question papers and other digital evidence. The CBI will subject the devices to a forensic examination to get the deleted data, the officials said.
The federal agency has registered an FIR and formed teams to probe the alleged NEET (UG) paper leak that resulted in the cancellation of the exam held on May 3.
The NEET (UG) 2026 was conducted across 551 Indian cities and at 14 overseas centres. Nearly 23 lakh candidates had registered for the test, which was administered by the NTA at centres across the country.
According to the NTA, information regarding alleged malpractice was received on the evening of May 7, four days after the examination was held. The NTA said the inputs were escalated to central agencies the following morning for "independent verification and necessary action".
The Rajasthan Police's Special Operations Group (SOG) has claimed that a "guess paper" for chemistry, allegedly circulated among students ahead of the examination, had approximately 410 questions, including roughly 120 that appeared in the test.
