Congress Minister justifies fuel price hike

Tirupati, June 7 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Minister N Raghuveera Reddy today justified the fuel price hike saying that it was inevitable following the soaring crude oil price in the international market.

Talking to newspersons, he said the previous NDA Government had hiked the prices of petroleum products 16 times.

Earlier, addressing a public meeting at Thummalagunta, he said besides providing free education in the state, the government was supplying books free of cost to students upto tenth standard.

He said no other state in the country had implemented such a scheme.

Referring to the mid-day meal scheme, Mr Reddy said the government had sanctioned Rs two per day to the each student as against Re one by the earlier government under the scheme.

Government Chief whip N Kirankumar Reddy inaugurated Rs 1.80 crore works including roads, school building and drinking water pipe lines at Thummalagunta.

Later in the meeting, three members of the TDP and BJP joined the Congress.

UNI KNR AJ 1919