As the newly-formed BJP-led NDA Government decided to increase the diesel prices by 50 paise a litre, the key ally — Shiromani Akali Dal — has called for included it in the “list of essential commodities”.
SAD patron and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal maintained that he would soon take up this matter with the Central Government.Batting for cheap prices of diesel, the Chief Minister said: “Diesel must be included in the list of essential commodities as it would directly help reduce inflation. Diesel is a catalyst for growth in agriculture and transport sector and by lowering its prices, a huge relief could be given to the countrymen.”
Badal said that he would take up this matter with the Union Government, “once the newly appointed Ministers settle down to work”.
On the other hand, the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Partap Singh Bajwa slammed the hike in diesel prices, saying that the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had earlier been opposing such hikes during the UPA government and now his party was a partner with the Government at the Centre.“It is a good beginning for achhe din (better days). It is only now that the BJP would understand the basics of country’s economy as it is easy to criticise the unpopular decisions which the Government had to take dictated purely by the constraints of global economy beyond its control,” said Bajwa.
The State Congress chief called upon Badal to oppose the same as he had been doing earlier, “otherwise his double standards in public life, with which he is associated, would be further exposed. Now his own daughter-in-law Harsimrat Kaur Badal is a part of the Union Cabinet”.
He said: “The people want to know whether she opposed this decision or was she just ignored by the Narendra Modi GovernmentIJ”