Bhubaneswar, March 31 : Congress members in Odisha Assembly on Thursday expressed concern over the rising prices of fuel and requested Speaker S N Patro to intervene and direct the government to initiate steps to bring down the prices. Raising the issue during zero hours Congress Legislature Party leader Narasingha Mishra said the government is looting the people by hiking the oil prices and urged the Speaker to direct the government to control it. His Party Colleague Santosh Singh Saluja said never before the prices of petrol, diesel and cooking gas had increased so much. He said people are suffering as the prices have increased nine times during the last ten days. The hike in oil prices has a cascading effect on other items and directly hits the consumers. Saluja said the state is collecting VAT of Rs 28 on every litre of petrol and Rs 24 on every litre of diesel sold and demanded immediate withdrawal of the hike in VAT. Tara Prasad Bahinipati of Congress urged both the on and the state government to initiate steps to reduce the tax imposed on fuel BD DP ARN