Petrol Stop - Sonia dumps fuel price issue

Sonia dumps fuel price issue

Thursday, 04 March 2010

04 March 2010;deccanherald.com:The issue of rolling back oil prices is as good as over with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday praising Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for his deft handling of the Union Budget. Gandhi, who was addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party, did not even refer to the oil price hike effected in the budget or the Opposition demand for its rollback. Nor she made mention of her allies, two of whom (Trinamool Congress and DMK) had sought a rollback of the hike. Backing the Budget proposals and indicating that she fully supported the government on the fuel price hike, Gandhi said: “We have many essential social obligations and to meet them it is necessary to raise resources. I congratulate the Finance Minister for a fine and delicate balancing act, which has been widely welcomed”. In another message that the party was fully behind the government on the Women’s Reservation Bill, being taken up in Rajya Sabha on Monday, Sonia Gandhi said she accorded the “highest importance” to it. “It would be a gift to the women of India if it is passed on Monday itself. March 8 happens to be International Women’s Day. On food prices, she said keeping a check on it continues to be “our foremost priority”. Describing the right to food security as “the most important pledge” in the Congress manifesto last year, Gandhi said, “We are now ready for the next step of placing the draft bill for discussion in the public domain.”