Terming the slashing of petrol prices by the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre as an interim relief,Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said that the Union government was preparing ground for exorbitant hike in near future. Interacting with mediapersons on the sidelines of the concluding leg of his two-day sangat darshan programme in the Fatehgarh Churian assembly segment here today,the chief minister said that reduction of petrol price was a strategy of the Centre to garner support in view of the ensuing elections in the four states. However,he said that the situation would worsen in future as the Centre would hike the prices of petrol manifold in the coming days. Badal said the UPA government was hand in glove with the big oil companies and was leaving no stone unturned to extend largesses to them at the cost of common man. He said hike in the price of diesel would prove fatal for the farming community,which was already reeling under a whopping debt due to the anti-farmer policies of the Union government. He said that this hike would also escalate the transport cost,due to which the household budget of the common man would be completely shattered. Replying to another query,Badal said the sudden surge in cases of disrespect of Sikh turban in foreign countries was an unfortunate development and it was the high time that the Ministry of External Affairs exploit all diplomatic channels at international level to register their protest.
