D. Raja says govt. cannot bypass debate in parliament on proposed gas price hike

Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja on Tuesday slammed the BJP-led NDA government over its proposed move to hike gas prices without taking up the matter for debate in parliament.

"Modi has become the prime minister and his government is taking all decisions before the budget session, why this hurry in taking such decisions, there is need for a thorough debate on natural gas and pricing policy in the parliament and the matter is also before judiciary. This government cannot bypass the judiciary, parliament, and it cannot bypass a meaningful debate," Raja told ANI.

"What appears now is that the Modi Government is telling the people to take bitter pills for the sake of economy. It means that the government has started telling people to tighten their belts and sacrifice for the sake of the economy. At the same time, it has been telling corporate houses to keep their coffers open for more and super profit, that is what its decision indicates," he said.

"Fixing the price of natural gas has become a very controversial issue in the recent past. The issue was raised several times several times inside and outside the parliament. In fact, our party leader Gurudas Dasgupta had taken this issue upto the apex court, challenging the government position. The Election Commission had asked the government to halt the fixing the price of natural gas during the time of elections," Raja added.

A decision on increasing natural gas prices is reportedly expected in the next few days, even as meetings between Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and top officials in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) continued on Monday.

The new government is looking at tweaking the United Progressive Alliance Government's approved price formula --- known as the Rangarajan formula--- that recommended raising prices to $8.4 a unit from the existing $4.2. The new price based on the formula could not be implemented by the previous government because of the model code of conduct.