Chandigarh: Criticising Centre for
"unwarranted and steep" hike in fuel prices, Punjab Chief
Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Saturday demanded an immediate
rollback of the increase.
"The recent hike of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas is
absolutely unrealistic and arbitrary," Badal said here.
He said it was "unforgivable" that on one hand the Centre
boasted of a high growth rate in the economy while on the
other hand, it was burdening common man with such an
"undesirable and unbearable" rise.
Badal said that the Centre had been "arbitrarily"
increasing the prices of diesel time and again and a similar
increase of Rs 3 per litre was imposed almost four months
back, putting an additional burden of Rs 300 crore on the
Punjabi farmers.
The Chief Minister said that in order to insulate small
and marginal farmers from such "frequent shocks", a mechanism
of differential pricing of agricultural sector should be
introduced.
In a steep hike, the Central government yesterday had
increased diesel price by Rs 3 per litre, domestic LPG by Rs
50 per cylinder and kerosene by Rs 2 per litre.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, June 25, 2011, 17:41