From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Jun 25: Bestirring itself into action under the new Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D K Shivakumar, who is scheduled to formally assume charge on July 2, the party lambasted the Narendra Modi government’s policies and decided to stage a mass protest on June 29 opposing the continued hike in fuel prices.

Addressing the media at the Congress Bhavan in Bengaluru on Thursday, Shivakumar said the party’s mass protest opposing a hike in fuel prices will be observed across the state on June 29. 

The Congress leaders would also hold a peace meeting at the Mahatma Gandhi statue on Friday (June 26) in Bengaluru and district headquarters to pay tributes to soldiers who were killed in violent clashes between Indian and Chinese troops during a face-off in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, Shivakumar said.

The KPCC chief flayed the state government for fixing exorbitant rates for treating COVID-19 patients in private hospitals and demanded that the government should provide free treatment to all categories of patients as all sections of people were facing hardships on account of the pandemic.

The state government had issued an order on June 23 fixing rates ranging from Rs 5,200 to Rs 25,000 depending on the category and severity of infection for providing treatment in private hospitals for Ayushman Bharat-Arogya Karnataka scheme and other insurance/cash-paying patients.

Former minister and MLA Krishna Byre Gowda alleged that the government has not been providing information to the opposition inputs provided by experts on the COVID-19 in a bid to keep everybody in the dark.

Congress legislators from Bengaluru would attend an all-party meeting called by the state government on Friday to discuss the plans for sealing down and lockdown in view of the continued spike in the cases of infection in the city, Shivakumar said.