By IANS,
Raipur : Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and 11 ministers in his council Monday rode bicycles to protest the rising prices in the country. They held Congress-led central government solely responsible for it.
Singh, 58, cycled 12 km in almost 50 minutes from Raipur’s Civil Lines area to the state assembly that opened Monday for the budget session after a month-long recess.
Singh and his ministerial colleagues assembled at the official Civil Lines area residence of PWD and Parliamentary affairs minister Brijmohan Agrawal and cycled together to the assembly complex.
A large number of securitymen were seen piloting and following Singh, ministers and legislators of the state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who participated in the rally. The lone woman minister Lata Usendi, who holds the women and child development portfolio, joined the rally.
Sources say that the BJP state unit, that called a statewide shutdown Saturday to protest the rising prices, had persuaded Singh, ministers and legislators to ride the bicycle to “extract political mileage” over the soaring prices of essential commodities.
The opposition Congress party described the cycle ride as a “drama” of the BJP government.
“The ‘cycle ride show’ is purely a political drama. The BJP government should focus on catching hoarders who have piled up illegal stocks of food items rather than engaging in any sort of political farce,” Leader of Opposition in the assembly Ravindra Choubey told reporters.