Petrol at Rs 89; Union Minister Ramdas Athawale offers ‘free’ insensitivity

On a day Mumbai witnessed a record Rs 89 petrol per litre, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale hilariously admitted that those hikes don’t affect or matter to him because he is a minister he gets fuel allowances from the government.

“I am not suffering from rising fuel prices as I am a minister,” he said, referring to the al

“The Fuel Price Hike does not affect me, I am a minister, I get fuel for free,” he said referring to allowances he receives as a minister.

“I may suffer if I lose my ministerial post,” he added.

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Incidentally, Athawale represents Maharashtra in the Rajya Sabha and on a day the capital of the state he speaks for in the upper house of the government experienced the highest petrol price in the country, the Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment said isn’t bothered.

Asked if the continues hikes in the fuel and petrol prices have affected him personally in any way, the minister said that the people are suffering more.

“The people are suffering from rising fuel prices and it is the duty of the government to reduce them,” said the 58-year-old reports NDTV.

The Centre is seriously working on it, he added, suggesting that a levy in the state’s taxes can help in reducing the fuel prices.

His comments, however, fetched the minister a lot wrath from the netizens on Twitter including from a former Chief Minister.

Omar Abdullah, a former CM of Jammu & Kashmir lashed out at Athawale for his remarks on the hike of fuel price.

“I am a minister, I get fuel for free”. Actually Minister Sahib your fuel@is not free, it’s being paid for by the taxes of hard working people. Not only are they paying for your “free fuel”, they have to pay for their own as well. But then you don’t pay taxes either!! https://t.co/qG0L5H4Ryn

— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) September 15, 2018

He wrote on Twitter, Actually Minister Sahib your fuel is not free, it’s being paid for by the taxes of hard-working people. Not only are they paying for your “free fuel”, they have to pay for their own as well. But then you don’t pay taxes either!!”

Meanwhile, a report in India Times stated that the Petrol prices can’t be raised higher than Rs 99 per litre as the machines cannot display a Rs 100 figure. Octane Petrol prices have already crossed the Rs 100 mark, but because of its limitations, the vendor machine showed Rs 0.33 per litre.

We have to manually update the fuel prices every day because they keep changing. The fuel dispenser can’t handle more than Rs 100 as of now,” said a petrol pump owner quoted the news website.

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