PETROL, DIESEL PRICES CUT BY 1 PAISA
Petrol and diesel prices were cut by 1 paisa per litre each on Wednesday, the first reduction after 16 days of hikes. But the marginal decline had its share of excitement with Indian Oil first announcing a reduction of 60 paise, only to retract it within hours, citing a technical error.
From 'petrolled' to 'fuelonfire', social media users had a field day on Wednesday with hash tags as petrol and diesel prices were cut by just one paisa, whereas the first announcement was a reduction of 60 paise. Petrol and diesel prices have been sailing northwards for the past two weeks and Wednesday was the first time that the prices were cut.
However, the quantum of reduction of one paisa opened the floodgate criticism on the social media.
Twitter was flooded with hash tags and messages about the price cut, making fun of the situation. ‘#petrolled’, ‘#fuelonfire’, ‘#petrolprice’ and ‘#fuel' were among the hash tags trending on Twitter besides various memes.
One user posed a picture of long gone 5 paise coin, saying “My savings today after filling 5 litres of petrol”. Another user said, "I am going to invest it in mutual funds now." Politicians also took to the social media to take a dig at the price cut of one paisa. "Dear PM, You've cut the price of Petrol and Diesel today by 1 paisa. ONE paisa!?? If this is your idea of a prank, it's childish and in poor taste," Congress President Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet.
"P.S. A ONE paisa cut is not a suitable response to the #FuelChallenge I threw you
last week," he added.
A faux pas saw the initial announcement coming in that
the prices have been cut by 60 paise while the quantum of reduction was only one paisa.