Centre should not have increased fuel prices, Badal

Hoshiarpur, Jun 7 (UNI) Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said that there was no need to enhance fuel prices as the Central government had sufficient resources to overcome financial losses.

Referring to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's appeal to the state governments to take some steps for bringing down the enhanced rates of petrol, diesel and LPG, Mr Badal told mediapersons here that the states were already facing financial problems and had limited funds for development.

However, he promised to take up the fuel hike issue in the meeting of his state Cabinet for granting relief to the public.

Replying to a question, he said that he had already asked State Chief Secretary Romesh Inder Singh to collect information about number of vehicles with the government officers and politicians so that extra vehicles could be withdrawn to save fuel.

UNI XC HS RR RAI2146