'Trinamool should act as a sensible ally to Congress'

, Sep 14:

chief Pradip Bhattacharya said on Friday that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) should behave as a more 'sensible' ally to the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre. Bhattacharya said this while asking the reason for Railway Minister Mukul Roy's continued absence from most Cabinet meetings where crucial decisions like fuel price hike are taken.

The state Congress chief said the decision to hike diesel prices was tough but sometimes tough decision had to be taken. He said the TMC should try to act more sensibly as an ally at the Centre instead of trying to gain political mileage out of the situation.

The TMC attacked the government after the latter riased the diesel price by Rs 5 a litre besides restricting availability of subsidised cooking gas cylinders per family to six in a year. The Congress leader said if the TMC planned to protest against the central government, the Congress would launch agitation against the policies of the state government.

Bhattacharya hit back when asked about the TMC's allegation that it was not being informed about the decision to increase the diesel price. He said Roy skipped most of the Cabint meetings despite being one of its members. "Why does he remain absent?" he asked. He said the TMC could not say it wasn't informed just because its minister went on skipping the Cabinet meetings.

Earlier, TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would have been happy by withdrawing support to the UPA government rather than remain party to such anti-people decisions. She said the TMC would take to the steets and threatened that it would take much longer for her to pull out of the UPA if the government did not roll back the prices.

OneIndia News