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Mamata reminds PM of
petro price hike review

The Union Cabinet Monday skipped any review of the hike in prices of petroleum products, effected on September 30, even as an agitated Union Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee recalled Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's promise on the issue and came out with suggestions to mitigate hardships on the common people.

Banerjee told reporters after a meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Vajpayee, that the review of petro product prices did not come up for discussion.

"But I wrote to Vajpayee on Monday suggesting how to mitigate the effect of hike in prices of kerosene and cooking gas," she said, but declined to elaborate.

She, however, recalled that the prime minister had given her a personal written assurance to review prices on his return from Bombay after his knee surgery.

Following the hike in prices of petro-products in the wake of a steep increase in international crude prices, Banerjee had resigned from the Union Cabinet to press for a rollback of hiked prices.

She withdrew her resignation on an assurance from Vajpayee to review the decision.

Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik declined to comment on the issue, saying that the decision on prices rested with the prime minister.

Naik had earlier stated that a further strenghtening of international crude prices along with depreciation of the rupee was leading to an additional deficit of Rs 200 crore a month on the oil pool account.

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