YSR writes to Sonia on fuel hike

Hyderabad, Jun 9 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy today said the Centre must take up the issue of oil price hike through mass campaign and educate people about the gravity of the situation.

In a letter to AICC President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, a copy of which was released to the press here, Dr Reddy said, ''There is hardly anything that any government can do when the international prices of crude have gone up in the last four years.

''I believe the fertilizer prices have also gone up by leaps and bounds entailing an additional subsidy burden of more than Rs 90,000 crore this year.

''We are in an unviable position and the only thing that we can do is to inform the people about these developments and the possible consequences,'' he said urging Ms Gandhi to prevail upon the Centre to take up a nation-wide campaign as otherwise the only information the citizens will have would be a disinformation campaign deliberately carried by the Opposition parties.

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