Rein in rupee fall, don’t hike fuel price: Chief Minister

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Chennai: Chief minister J. Jayala­l­i­­thaa lashed out at the Congress-led UPA gove­r­nment for hiking the prices of fuel instead of ad­dressing the problem of depreciation of rupee and asked the Centre to arr­est the slide in rupee value. 
 
Charging that the hike in petrol price spurred by weak currency displayed the Congress’ “ad­ministrative incompetence and incapability” she said instead of taking steps to control the falling value of the Indian rupee, which was the reason for the fuel price hike, the Central government was merely revising the rate of petrol as per its “whims and fancies and this is the best example of its administrative incompetence and incapability.”
 
Frequent fuel price increase was further driving up the prices of es­s­e­ntial commodities and hu­rting the public. Str­o­ngly condemning the Ce­ntre’s attitude she dema­nded the government to roll back the increase and take firm steps to control the weakening of the rupee against the US dollar.
 
Reacting to the Rs 1.82 a litre hike in petrol pric­es, she blamed the wrong economic policies of the Centre and the deregulation of petroleum prices for the present crisis and said only the Centre and RBI could take steps to stop the rupee depreciation.