‘Conduct audit of oil companies’

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 2: The central government should take steps to scrutinise the accounts of all oil companies, a Congress leader here said on Thursday.

Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran said the party’s defeat in the recent assembly elections could be attributed to the change in its cooking gas policies.

Pointing to the Delhi government’s move to conduct an audit of power discoms, Sudheeran said the centre should do the same with oil companies.

He said: "The centre should immediately take steps to see that a thorough inspection of the accounts of all oil companies is done to know their financial situation."

Since the hike in the price of non-subsidised cooking gas (LPG) Wednesday, many dealers in the state are charging more than Rs.1,000 per cylinder despite the chief minister saying that there will be no hike in the state.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had said that union Petroleum Minister Veerapa Moily assured him that there will be no hike.

State Food and Civil Supplies Minister Anoop Jacob told reporters here Thursday: "The official announcement from the petroleum ministry is still not out if Kerala’s residents will get an extension of two more months to get their gas connections and bank account linked to Aadhar (ID card)."

"The experiment of giving a free hand to oil companies to determine the price of petroleum products has proved to be a wrong one and the authorities should immediately reverse this," said Sudheeran.

The people’s priorities should be given importance and not oil companies, he added.

Sudheeran is widely tipped to be the next president of the state Congress after Ramesh Chennithala who was sworn in as a minister in the Chandy government Jan 1.

"It’s hypothetical question if I will become the next president. These decisions are taken by the party high command and whosoever comes to that post, all partymen will accept it," Sudheeran told reporters when questioned on his prospects of getting the nod.