KARAIKAL: Union Minister of State in the PMO V Narayanasamy has said that the time had come to put a full stop to Team Anna. Speaking to mediapersons here on Sunday, the Minister said that Team Anna had put forth several charges against the Prime Minister and Union ministers.
“On going through the background of the team members, especially that of Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi, one can understand that they had traded charges of irregularities against each other. The team has lost its faith among the public,” the Minister said.
“The petrol price hike is, of course, a bitter decision,” he said. Narayanasamy said that the DMK and TMC, both constituents of the UPA, along with the BJP and other Opposition parties, were staging protests against the petrol price hike.
However, the agitation by some of the UPA partners would not affect the alliance in any way, he felt.
Narayanasamy further said that in the last two months, oil companies had incurred a loss of `2,345 crore. The Union Government is paying a subsidy of `21 per litre for kerosene, `501 per LPG cylinder, `14 for diesel and `12 for petrol. “This kept the petrol prices low, despite a huge rise in the price of crude oil in the international market,” he said.
He also informed that Union Petroleum Minister Jaipal Reddy was taking steps to slash Central taxes on petrol products and that the price was likely to come down in a day or two. “If states too reduce the tax, the price will come down further,” he said.
On the Mullaiperiyar issue, Narayanasamy said that if the Tamil Nadu and Kerala insisted on the PM’s intervention, he would hold talks on the issue. Otherwise, both states would have to abide by the court’s verdict, he said.