Retain May 22 price for petrol, demands Jayalalithaa

Condemning the Centre’s decision to hike the price of petrol by 70 paise from midnight of Monday, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has demanded that the price be brought back to the level that was prevailing on May 22, i.e., the price prevailing on the day prior to the historic hike of `7.50 per litre was effected.

“At a time when the people expect that the Union government take steps to control inflation and the skyrocketing prices of commodities and to check the sliding value of Indian currency, it has been moving in the diagonally opposite direction. This is highly painful.

The petrol price hike is a totally unfair move and would add to the woes of the poor and middle class people,” the Chief Minister said in a statement.

“The petrol price is hiked very often on the excuse that the crude oil price in the international market is going up. This can’t be accepted at any cost because the real reason behind such steps is the wrong policy adopted by the Centre,” the Chief Minister said.

Observing that the rise in prices of commodities and decrease in the value of the Indian rupee have become a regular feature of the Congress-led government at the Centre, Jayalalithaa said besides these, the Centre had been frequently adding fuel to the price rise by the moves like petrol price hike.

The CM said the petrol price, which was hiked by Rs 7.50 per litre on May 23, was reduced by Rs 2 on June 2 after massive opposition and her strong demand against the move. Later, it was brought down further by Rs 3 on June 29.

In this connection, the CM recalled that she had, then, described the reduction as an eye-wash as it was not in proportion to the reduction in the price of crude oil in the international market.