Terming the diesel and domestic LPG price hike a ‘brazen attack' on women, speakers at a public meeting held in connection with the 12th State conference of AIDWA here on Wednesday night launched a scathing attack on the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre for allegedly pursuing the policies of “enriching the rich and impoverishing the poor”.
Addressing a huge gathering of women at the Pavilion Grounds here, the CPI (M) Polit Bureau member and MP Brinda Karat alleged that the UPA government had made the lives of poor miserable by resorting to steep hike in fuel and domestic LPG prices. "The women are the worst hit by the fuel price rise in view of its cascading effect," she said and accused the UPA government of betraying the faith of the poor after obtaining mandate in the name of welfare of Aam Admi (common man).
She said the increase showed unabashed opportunism of the UPA government which hiked the fuel prices after the elections to various states when the international crude oil prices had dropped to $90 per barrel. The government should make public the production cost of one litre of diesel and the revenue it was earning through the price increase, she said. The rich were growing richer while the poor were suffering the brunt of price rise, she said.
This government does not have the guts to bring back the black money stashed in foreign banks and will to contain the large scale corruption that assumed epidemic proportions in the country, she charged.
Taking a dig at Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, she said, “He cannot manage his own party. How can he run the government?” she questioned. The State government was least bothered about the irrigation projects in the region as was evident from its utter neglect of Dummugudem project in Khammam district, she alleged and accused the government of promoting liquor sales.
AIDWA general secretary Sudha Sundararaman flayed the Planning Commission's 'new definition' of Below Poverty Line. “Let the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee stay for a few days in the rural areas and run their families with a daily expenditure of Rs 15 to demonstrate that one could live with that meagre amount. Freedom fighter Mallu Swarajyam, AIDWA State president T Jyothi, and vice-president S Punyavathi participated.
(Courtesy :The Hindu)
