Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja on Wednesday criticized the recommendations of the Kirit Parikh Committee to hike prices of diesel, LGP cylinder etc, and said that the Congress-led UPA II Government continues to remain insensitive to the sufferings and hardships of the common people.
"This is a very insensitive recommendation made by this committee, when inflation is the most burning issue today. And if this committee recommends such steep hike in the price of diesel and petrol, this is going to have a cascading impact on all the prices and it is going to burden the people in a big way," he said.
"The Congress-led UPA II Government continues to remain insensitive to the sufferings and hardships of the common people. That is what the committee's recommendation also reflects," he added.
He further said that these are disastrous recommendations, and added that the government will have to face the wrath of people in the forthcoming elections.
Earlier in the day, the panel headed by former Planning Commission member Kirit Parikh suggested that diesel prices should be hiked by Rs 5 per litre, cooking gas (LPG) rates by Rs 250 per cylinder and kerosene by Rs 4 per litre immediately.
"If you don't raise the diesel price, there are also implications on this. In a study we had carried out earlier, integrated research and action development (IRADe), showed clearly that if we had raised the diesel price two years ago, our inflation would have been much lower than what it has been," Parikh told media here today.
However, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Veerappa Moily said that the Government would study this report in detail, after consultations with the Finance Ministry.
We have to consult the Finance Ministry, then we will come out with our implementation process," Moily said.
The Parikh Committee was constituted by the Government four months ago, to advice it on issues related to fuel subsidies, pricing of diesel, cooking gas and kerosene.
