Strongly condemning yet another hike in petrol prices, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday urged the UPA government at the Centre to initiate firm steps to check the frequent fall in the value of the rupee, which has a cascading impact on oil prices. She urged the Centre to withdraw the latest hike in petrol prices immediately keeping in mind the interests of the poor and middle classes.
In a statement here, the Chief Minister said “the Centre had effected yet another hike in petrol price within a fortnight. This is nothing but height of betrayal on the part of the Congress-led coalition government.”
The Centre cannot justify the hike by putting forth routine excuses that the value of the rupee continued to fall while the crude oil price is on the upswing in the international market, she said.
“The root cause of frequent hike in oil prices is the fall in value of rupee. It is the best example for the administrative inefficiency and helplessness of the Central government,” Jayalalithaa said and added that the wrong economic policies and oil pricing policy adopted by the Central government were the reasons for the recurrent hike in oil prices.
Pointing out that the Central government and the Reserve Bank of India could have taken steps to check the ‘never before fall’ in the value of rupee, she said instead of doing so, the Centre’s decision to pass the burden on to the common man could not be accepted. Third hike in petrol price within a month shows that the Centre had no respect for the views of the people, she charged.
Pointing out that the petrol price hike would have a cascading impact on every aspect of the life, she said factories, bikers, autorickshaws would be affected and the prices of essential commodities would go up. Ultimately, the value of the rupee would again come down, she pointed out.