Opposition parties on Thursday criticised the UPA-led Union Government’s decisions to decontrol diesel prices and relax the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders.
While the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) “condemned” the decision, the Trinamool Congress dubbed the move to raise the limit on subsidised LPG cylinders as “all gas and gimmicks”.
Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Veerappa Moily on Thursday said State-run oil marketing companies can increase diesel prices following a rise in global crude oil prices. Even the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders was raised to nine in a year (from the previous six).
Responding to this announcement, the CPI (M) central committee in a media statement said: “This will lead to continuous increase in the prices of diesel as it happened with the prices of petrol after deregulation. The rise in the prices of diesel will (have an) impact on transport and increase inflation. It will also affect farmers adversely.”
According to CPI (M), the UPA Government is “adamant to further burden” the people who are already facing “ever-increasing” price rise of all essential commodities.
It also pointed out that relaxing the cap on LPG cylinders to nine was “insufficient”.
LPG connections
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’ Brien claimed that the Government decision to raise the subsidised LPG cylinder limit to nine was not “enough”.
According to O’ Brien, the Centre should have raised the limit to 18 or 24.
“We’ve been demanding 18 to 24 cylinders, 1.5 a month for a normal household,” he wrote on the micro-blogging site, Twitter.
He said the “UPA Government is all gas and gimmicks”.
“…like a shop that raises prices 100 per cent and then offers token discounts. Pre-budget price hikes r (are) similar,” he tweeted.