Bhushan welcomes EC order gas pricing issue

Welcoming the order of the Election Commision to defer the hike in prices of gas, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday said that such a catastrophic decision by the government would only help bigwigs like Reliance fill their pockets and would lead the country to face losses.

"We salute the Election Commission for having taken the very salutary decision in public interest, which has saved the people of this country from a loss of 54,000 crores, which would have gone directly to the pockets of one company - Reliance," said Bhushan.

The country's apex court on Tuesday resumed a hearing on two petitions to strike down the cabinet's June 2013 approval of a doubling in the gas price on grounds that it favoured a corporate house and was against the interests of the nation.

The government told the court on Tuesday that it would comply with the Commission's request.

Bhushan also hailed AAP for its initiative, but condemned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for not opposing the hike when it was declared and accused it of being in the pockets of Reliance.

"Virtually none of the other opposition parties, particularly neither the BJP nor Modi have sought it fit to oppose this decision, which will have a disastrous affect on fertiliser prices, power prices, transportation cause, cooking gas cause, etc. It was only the Aam Aadmi Party which opposed this gas price hike and took the matter up with the Election Commission," said Bhushan.