By IANS,
New Delhi : In response to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s call for austerity, Minister of State for Finance and Parliamentary Affairs Pawan Kumar Bansal Wednesday surrendered his official car.
“In response to Prime Minister’s call for austerity, Pawan Kumar Bansal has surrendered the official car attached to him on his assumption of the office of minister of state in the ministry of parliamentary affairs,” an official press communiqué said Wednesday.
Prime Minister Singh June 5 had written to his ministers to cut down on foreign travel and lavish spending in the wake of the unprecedented rise in oil prices.
The prime minister’s austerity call had come a day after the government June 4 hiked the price of petrol and diesel by Rs.5 and Rs.3 a litre and that of cooking gas by Rs.50 a cylinder.