Mamata Banerjee meets Sonia Gandhi to discuss petrol price hike

New Delhi, Jan 22(ANI): Union Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee on Saturday met United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janpath in the national capital.

According to Trinamool Congress sources, the two leaders had a discussion on the recent petrol price hike.

The meeting lasted for around 10 minutes.

Banerjee has already written a letter to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh asking the UPA government to review its pricing policy of petrol.

The decision to de-regulate petrol prices was cleared last June by a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukehrjee.

Banerjee is a member of this GoM, but she did not attend its meeting on the day the de-regulation was cleared.

The country is beset by rising food and fuel prices, and the Central government is facing criticism for failing to introduce structural reforms to control inflation, which has hit the general public adversely.

Earlier, on January 15, state-owned oil companies had hiked petrol prices by Rs. 2.50 - Rs. 2.54 per litre, the second hike in a month, due to rising global crude oil prices. (ANI)