Guwahati: Blows after blows seem to have hit the people hards. That too in the of a global endemic that claimed millions of people putting many others under the jaws of death.
Three days after the Assam Government resumed the toll plazas to collect road taxes, on Tuesday the BJP-led government hiked the prices of petrol and diesel prices by Rs 5 fuelling a hail of anger among the people.
According to sources, the government is cash trapped and has hardly any option to mop up revenue and the soft options include fuel prices hike and toll gate resumption which closed down because of the endemic.
A couple of days back., defying all hulloballo, the government ordered opening of wine shops for three days fetching Rs 150 crore unlike other states. These shops had to down the shutters following a central guidelines.
Even after the government is busy with doling out food materials among the self quarantined people and announced more measures, the state exchequer is in the red. State finance minister, who has gone ga ga to keep the killer virus at bay from all fronts admitted the inability to clear the salaries for the employees in June.
Is this the viable means to plug the gap?
(Story updated on April 22, 2020.)
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