LUCKNOW: Dismissing criticism over the rising fuel prices, Uttar Pradesh minister Upendra Tiwari on Thursday said 95 per cent people have no use for petrol.
Tiwari also argued that fuel prices had not really risen in real terms when the per capita income now is compared with that in 2014, referring to the year when a BJP-led government first came to power at the Centre.
"Today, there are just a handful of people who travel in four-wheel vehicles and use petrol. At present, 95 per cent people don't need petrol," Tiwari told reporters in Jalaun.
Higher fuel costs, however, impact virtually every citizen.
For example, they lead to an increase in the price of all commodities -- including foodgrain, fruit and vegetables -- that are transported from one part of the country to another.
The minister's remark comes when petrol prices have crossed Rs 100 per litre in most parts of the country, and diesel hovers close to that mark.
He claimed that the opposition doesn't have any real issue to attack the government.
"You see the data before 2014. What is the per capita income after the formation of the Modi and the Yogi governments?" he said, referring to the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh.
"Today, the per capita income is double," he claimed.
He also referred to free schooling and the coronavirus vaccination offered by the government.