Diesel hike hits homes the hardest

The government on Thursday gave a double body blow to the budgets of middle-class households, by hiking the diesel prices by Rs5 per litre and limiting the number of subsidised cylinders to six per year per household.

Housewives reacted strongly to the hike that is expected to further increase the price of essential commodities, as transporters said  they would transfer the burden of the hike on the consumers.

“Our economics will change and we have no option but to push it on to the common man,” Bal Malkit Singh, president of All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) told DNA. “The toll and other related rates are so high that we barely manage to run transport services at any profits. The hike in diesel will push the rates further. It will have a chain effect on all other commodities as well.”
In Mumbai, while public transport like autos and taxis and most of

the BEST buses run on CNG, the heat of the diesel hike will be felt more by private vehicle owners who own diesel-run sports utility vehicles and truck and tempo owners who ferry cargo.

“Given the high rates of petrol, I had converted my car into a diesel, and now the prices of diesel are also going up. How will the common man survive?” said Ranjan Kurmekar, a motorist.
The government has also decided to limit the number of subsidised cylinders to six per year in every household.

“It’s becoming very difficult to run a home. My home’s monthly requirement is of one cylinder per month. The ceiling is absurd,” said Urmila Phatak, a housewife residing at Mira Road.

Neelima Patil, a 55-year-old Bhayander homemaker, said, “Our family of four makes do with one cylinder for nearly 45 days. How much should we save and how? Even if we buy electric burners, the household budget will shoot up.”

The decision also evoked strong reactions from political parties. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said the UPA government had become a “harbinger of death” for the common man and questioned what was being done to take the oil marketing companies out of the red.

He demanded that money from the various scams be recovered and used to reduce the diesel prices.

Besides transporters, civic-run garbage trucks in the city also run on diesel. However, the cost of picking up garbage in the city will not go up, said Shekhar Chitale, civic chief engineer for solid waste management.