Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas M. Veerappa Moily dismissed reports of a possible hike in diesel, LPG and kerosene as being “rumours” and said the hike was only in the proposal stage. Similarly, he said there was no decision yet on increasing the annual subsidy cap on domestic LPG cylinders to nine, from six.
Talking to presspersons on his arrival in Mangalore on Saturday, Mr. Moily said the decisions on either proposal will be taken “when we can”, indirectly referring to the elections in three northeastern States in February.
On the incursions by Pakistan and the killings of soldiers at the border, he said the government was viewing the incident with “utmost seriousness” and condemned Pakistan for not having “even issued a statement of remorse”.
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With the Supreme Court quashing the State government’s appointment of K. Chandrashekaraiah as the Upalokayukta, Mr. Moily said the government was to blame. “The State government does nothing according to procedure. They are doing everything in a hurry, and obviously they will get pulled up for it,” the Minister said, while adding that the order showed the “apathy” of the government in tackling corruption. “They have not named the Lokayukta even after the post became vacant more than a year ago. They have not implemented or taken action against the officials, Ministers and MLAs named in the Lokayukta report on illegal mining. This just shows how serious they are on corruption,” he said.
On the upcoming Assembly elections, he expressed confidence in a Congress victory and said a coalition with the newly-formed Karnataka Janata Paksha was not being considered.