Yet another blow for the common man – the fuel price hike. When UPA II government completes its first year in power, this is the third time they have increased the fuel prices.Definitely this is going to hurt the middle class and the poor in our country. To make the situation even worse, this will have a cascading effect on the economy. As a consequence of the fuel price hike, the prices of essential commodities will also increase. Now itself the middle class is reeling under high price of essential commodities.
At least the state governments should give some relief for the people by doing away with the extra revenue generated by the fuel price hike. Now onwards the government will not have any control on the pricing of petrol. It will fluctuate according to the price of crude oil in the international market. This will impose huge burden on the people when crude oil prices increase. The government responsible for protecting the interest of the people can only be a spectator.
To safeguard the interest of the oil companies, the government is sacrificing the interest of the common man. While they are arguing that the price of kerosene in our neighboring countries are much higher, they are keeping mum on the price of petrol in these countries (Pakistan-`26, Bangladesh-`22,Nepal-`34, Afganistan-`33 [Source: The Hindu]).The ministers and government officials will not feel the heat because they are living at the expense of the people.
In the race to achieve higher growth rate, the government is forgetting the people. Now it seems that the only responsibility of the government is to increase the growth rate. Definitely it should be given priority, but it should be done in a more stable manner. I think the government is overconfident because India has not been affected much by the global economic meltdown compared to other major economies in the world. Although the global economy has recovered from that fall, it is still fragile. Even though India has registered a good growth rate in the previous fiscal, the condition of the poor in our country is still pathetic. The government should take more efforts to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor.
