Petro hike: Jaya blasts Centre

hike, which is literally the last straw on the camel’s back.’’

Noting that the prices of petrol had gone up by 20.30 percent since the UPA Government took over, she said this was the most regressive burden ever imposed on the poor. ‘‘We are asked to believe tall claims that inflation is under control with a 30.05 percent hike in the price of diesel in just one year,’’ she said.

The frequent hike in the prices of petroleum products had torn away the mask of the so-called ‘human face’ of the UPA Government, revealing the real evil face of an anti-people Government, she said.

Claiming that she had turned around Tamil Nadu’s economy through a string of fiscal measures after having inherited a cash-strapped treasury in May 2001, she said that she had ensured that the common man was not affected by the radical economic reforms.

Rejecting the Centre’s justification of the hike, she said ‘‘with some adroit management of Central duties, as also refining margins of Oil companies, together with a little sacrifice of their profits, this price increase could have been avoided.’’

Jayalalithaa charged that every action of the UPA Government aided only corporate houses while rhetoric was reserved for the poor. She warned that people would not be hoodwinked and the time was not far off when they would teach the UPA constituents a lesson.