Hypocrisy of Mamata and Trinamul

Allies knew of petrol hike: Pranab

CM Was Part Of EGoM That Took Decontrol Decision

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 

MAMATA BANERJEE was part of EGoM

Kolkata: They may cross swords over deregulation of petrol prices, but Congress and CPM are singing the same tune when it comes to taking on Mamata Banerjee. 
    Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday gave the Left ammunition against Mamata’s claims that the government was keeping allies in the dark on decisions to hike petrol prices. Mukherjee said an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) with representatives from the UPA allies approved the deregulation in its meeting on June 28, 2010. 
    But he stopped short of saying that Mamata, who was railway minister then, was invited to the Cabinet meeting as a member of the EGoM along with oil minister Murli Deora, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, chemical and fertiliser minister M K Alagiri, road transport minister Kamal Nath and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Mamata did not attend the meeting. 
    “Petrol prices were deregulated long back on June 28, 2010. There is an EGoM. It consists of representatives of all political parties that have a member in the Union Cabinet. Our partners in the coalition are members. Sometimes, they come to the meeting, sometimes they don’t. That is a different question. But they are all members,” the finance minister said in Kolkata. Mukherjee heads the EoGM on petroleum. 
    His comments came as an endorsement of CPM central committee member Nilotpal Basu’s statement on Friday calling Mamata’s “bluff”. Mukherjee, though, kept his distance with the Left, calling Trinamool Congress an important UPA ally and describing its concerns on petrol price hikes as perfectly legitimate. 

   Mamata Banerjee

 Pranab explains hike maths Kolkata: “It is perfectly legitimate for any political party which is a constituent of the UPA to express concern on any issue and discuss about it with the Prime Minister. They (Trinamool Congress) have exactly done that,” Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in response to Mamata Banerjee’s ultimatum to the UPA government. The finance minister then got down to some of the basics of oil pricing. “Our annual requirement of petrol is 106 million ton, of which we produce only 32 to 33 million tons and need to import the rest. The oil companies won’t be able to import if they are ailing. Their under recovery has increased. The total loss for BPCL and HPCL between April and September 2011 was Rs 12,000 crore. IOC is also in the red. I made a provision of Rs 50,000 crore as subsidy but the under recovery has shot up to Rs 78,190 crore,” Mukherjee said. TNN