Opposition stages walkout, demands rollback
The Kerala CPI(M) would launch a massive, indefinite stir on January 15 demanding rollback of the recent hike in the lPG prices and abandonment of the system of Aadhaar-bank account linkage for cooking gas subsidy even as the party-led lDF Opposition on Monday staged a walkout in the State Assembly over the issues.
In the context of the abject failure of the six-month-long leftist agitations demanding Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s resignation over the infamous solar scam, State CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said that the duration of the agitation to be launched could not be predicted but it would continue till the Government accepted the demands.
The agitations which would include protest fast would start on January 15 at 1,400 centres in the State (at ten places in one Assembly constituency), Pinarayi told media persons in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. It would be better if the Government withdrew the anti-people measures in view of the protests, he said.
“The Chief Minister’s stand on the issues of the lPG price hike and Aadhaar-bank account linking amounts to betrayal of the people,” Pinarayi said. “While he is saying that the price hike cannot be justified, the Petroleum Minister (from his own party) is adamant that the increased price would not be rolled back,” he pointed out.
“This hike in the lPG prices is to help the corporates. The Centre’s policy is to give tax exemptions to corporates even when reducing the subsidies for the poor,” Pinarayi said, alleging that the UPA had since 2006 extended assistances to the tune of `28 lakh crore to the corporates.
Calling for people’s support for the agitation, Pinarayi said that the Centre’s decision to make Aadhaar-bank account linkage mandatory for DBT of subsidy was in violation of the Supreme Court’s orders. He also pointed out that the Centre had not yet passed any law to make Aadhaar linkage mandatory.
Meanwhile, the State Assembly on Monday, the first day of debates in the Budget Session, witnessed heated arguments and an Opposition walkout over the issues of the lPG price hike and Aadhaar linkage. The session had started on Friday last but that day’s business was limited to the Governor’s policy address.
Moving the notice for an adjournment motion on the lPG issue, former Finance Minister and CPI(M) member TM Thomas Isaac said that the Government was conniving with the oil companies’ robbery. The State Government should not hope to handle the lPG issue as it had handled the solar scam, he warned.
“The Supreme Court itself has ordered that Aadhaar-bank account linkage should not be made mandatory for subsidy,” he pointed out. The Government was claiming that every consumer was getting nine lPG cylinders with subsidy a year but the fact was that only six were being given, Isaac said.
Replying to the notice for the motion, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Anoop Jacob said that the recent lPG price hike would affect only those consumers who were outside the subsidy net. “The common people need not worry about it as nine cylinders were being given with subsidy,” he said, adding that majority of the people in the State were using less than nine cylinders a year.
Over 40 percent of the consumers in the State were yet to link Aadhaar registration with their bank accounts, Anoop said. It was in this context that the State had asked the Centre to give a six-month extension for this, he added. He also said that the Chief Minister had written to the Centre asking it to review the decision to hand over price-fixing right to the oil companies.
Intervening in the discussion, Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan said that the Government had knelt before the oil companies and that the Opposition was being pushed to a situation where it had to launch agitations. As the Speaker refused leave for the adjournment motion, the Opposition walked out of the House.