What is the story about?
Arvind Kejriwal and several senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders staged a sit-in protest on Delhi's Firoz Shah Road on Tuesday after police stopped their
march towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence, where they sought to submit petitions opposing the rollout of E20 petrol. Leading the protest, AAP national convener Kejriwal alleged that people across the country were facing difficulties due to E20 fuel and accused the Centre of pushing the policy under external pressure. "People are troubled by E20. PM Modi is imposing ethanol under pressure from America. This is not right. We request Modi ji to stop doing so. We want to meet the Prime Minister... he is our Prime Minister," Kejriwal said.
Appealing to the Delhi Police, Kejriwal said the party only wanted to present its concerns directly to the Prime Minister.
"We are not terrorists. We want to meet PM Modi over the E20 fuel issue. Kindly inform him that we want to meet," he said.
After being stopped from proceeding further, Kejriwal, along with former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and other AAP leaders, sat on a protest at Firoz Shah Road.
Kejriwal later said Delhi Police had agreed to take the petitions to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on behalf of the party and assured them that an acknowledgement receipt would be sent.
"The Delhi Police will take the petitions to the PMO and send us a receiving receipt," he said, adding that AAP's campaign against the ethanol-blended fuel policy would continue.
What is AAP demanding?
The protest comes amid AAP's ongoing opposition to the Centre's E20 petrol rollout, with the party claiming the policy has adversely affected vehicle owners and consumers.
The march was the first such escalation in AAP's campaign against the Centre's E20 fuel policy. Kejriwal has put forward three demands on the issue to the Centre: there should be an option for E20 and pure petrol at petrol pumps, E20 should be cheaper than pure petrol, and the price of petrol should be less than 84 rupees/litre.
Earlier, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Suresh Gopi said that the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme has been implemented through a phased, scientifically validated and consultative process involving NITI Aayog, automobile manufacturers, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) and other technical institutions.
