Common man burdened by price rise under UPA rule: Naik

Chennai, Sep 21 (UNI) Senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Ram Naik today alleged that in two and a half years of its rule, the Congress led UPA government at the Centre had imposed an unbearable burden on the common man through price rise.

Addressing a press conference Mr Naik, who was here as BJP's central observor for the elections to the party's Tamil Nadu unit tomorrow, charged that ''the heat of price increase is being felt by the common man especially the heavy dose of increasing petroleum prices.'' Charging that the petroleum ministers in the UPA government, Mani Shankar Aiyar and his successor Murali Deora had reversed the initiatives taken by the previous Vajpayee government in the petroleum sector, Mr Naik who held the portfolio then, pointed out that while diesel which was sold at Rs 21.74 per litre during April 2004, now costs Rs 35.51, an increase Rs 13.77. Petrol which was selling at Rs 33.71 per litre, has gone up to Rs 51.83 per litre.

Mr Naik also alleged that in the last 28 months, the Manmohan Singh government had also created an ''artifical scarcity of LPG cooking gas. ''We had liquidated a waiting list of 1.10 crore LPG customers by providing four crore new connections, giving new connections on demand and did not increase the price although international prices increased'', he claimed.

Mr Naik alleged that the Manmohan Singh government, which swears by the common man, had increased the LPG cooking gas price twice by more than Rs 50.

Mr Naik also alleged that national sentiments were being ''hurt frequently'' as the 'disrespect' shown towards the national song 'Vande Mataram' recently by the Congress to appease 'certain sections of the people', proved.

As the micorscopic section of the society opposed singing of 'Vande Mataram', Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi did not attend any function to observe the centenary of the song, Mr Naik alleged.

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