Kanpur: Workers of the Aam Aadmi Party staged a protest at the Bharat Mata statue Ghantaghar on Saturday against the alleged shortage of LPG cylinders and rising inflation.The protest was held under the directives of Rajya Sabha MP and Uttar Pradesh in-charge Sanjay Singh. Demonstrators carried empty cylinders, stoves, empty kadhai and utensils to highlight the difficulties faced by traders and small vendors.Kanpur spokesperson of the party Madan Lal Bhatia said a scuffle broke out between protesters and local police during the demonstration. A large number of party workers gathered at the site and raised slogans against alleged black marketing of gas cylinders.Party members claimed that the increase in LPG prices and shortage of commercial cylinders had affected thousands of shops, factories, cart vendors and street food sellers, resulting in loss of livelihoods for many people. They blamed government policies for the situation. During the protest, party workers submitted a memorandum addressed to the President through the local police, demanding rollback of the recent hike in domestic LPG cylinder prices, a transparent policy to control petrol and diesel prices, and subsidies on cooking gas for poor and middle-class.The protest was led by district president Anuj Shukla and coordinated by Bhatia along with general secretary Naresh Chandra Agrawal and organisation general secretary Yogesh Dixit. State spokespersons Sanjiv Nigam and Manish Gupta were also present during the protest.
