By IANS,
Kolkata : Angered over the diesel price hike Thursday, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee said she would have been very happy if she could have withdrawn support from the UPA regime rather than be party to such “anti-people” policy.
She also announced that her party will hit the streets against the anti-people decision, and threatened it wouldn’t “take her a minute to withdraw support” if the hike was not reversed.
“We oppose such anti-people policy. I am shocked and disappointed. They have made a coordination committee but they don’t bother to discuss with the allies. I request the common people to take part in the rally,” said Banerjee, also the West Bengal chief minister.
The government Thursday announced a hike in diesel price by Rs.five a litre and restricted availability of cooking gas cylinders per family to six per year.
The decisions come into effect midnight Thursday.
“I would have been very happy if I could withdraw the support at this very moment. But if I withdraw the support other parties will come up to support them. They will accuse me of creating instability,” Banerjee said.
“We will take a decision on it very soon. Our party will hit the streets from Saturday and I will also participate in the protest rally in Kolkata on Saturday,” she added.
She lashed out at the Congress-led UPA – where her party Trinamool Congress is the second largest ally – for not discussing the matter with the allies and demanded an immediate rollback of the prices.
“We want an immediate rollback otherwise we will be forced to take tough decisions. It will take a minute for me to withdraw from the government. If they say that they will increase the diesel price, then we have to rethink whether we will stay with the government or not,” Banerjee said.
“For cause of Bengal we have kept the railway portfolio. That’s all. The centre has not provided any help to debt-ridden Bengal. We are there just to provide stability to the government. But we can’t be party to anti-people policies,” Banerjee said.