By IANS,
Chennai : Defending her decision to hike bus fares and milk prices and the proposed rise in power tariffs, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa Sunday urged people to support to the measures to save the public sector organisations “mismanaged” by the DMK regime.
In a statement issued here, Jayalalithaa said the decision of her government to increase the milk prices and bus fares Thursday was a forced decision due to the mismanagement of the state government undertakings by the erstwhile DMK government.
“The public sector undertakings were on the verge of becoming dysfunctional due the actions of previous DMK government. As the central government was not extending and financial assistance, price rise was inevitable,” she said.
She said the cumulative losses incurred by all the state transport undertakings is Rs.6,150 crore and they are in a state of bankruptcy.
“The government was providing Rs.60 crore assistance every month to them and revision in fares is the one way to change the present situation,” she said.
On the reasons for the upward revision in milk prices, Jayalalithaa said Aavin (the state milk federation) was paying the milk farmers after a delay of 45 days and the DMK government did not bother much about that.
“The government headed by me gave Rs.100 crore to Aavin for disbursement to milk suppliers,” she said.
Criticising her poll allies – DMDK, the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Communist Party of India and others – for condemning the price hikes, Jayalalithaa charged them of playing a dual role as they had earlier expressed concern about the health of these state government undertakings.
According to her, the opposition parties had told her that it is only she who can take bold decisions while complaining about the financial mismanagement of the DMK government.
The minimum bus fares have been increased by a rupee to Rs.3 and the maximum by Rs.5 to Rs.12 across the state other than Chennai. In the state capital, the maximum bus fare has gone up by Rs.2 to Rs.14.
The price of milk has gone up by Rs.6.25 per litre to Rs.24. The milk procurement prices have also been increased by Rs.2 per litre.