After biting bullet, Jayalalithaa sticks to guns

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Chief minister J. Jayalalithaa rejected on Sunday the Opposition demand for a rollback of milk price and bus fare hikes.

She asserted the hikes were necessitated by the misadministration of the previous DMK regime, which left PSUs almost bankrupt. In a four-page statement, the chief minister expla-ined the reasons for the hikes.

“Milk cooperative societies were making profit till 2006. But in the past few years, Aavin was unable to pay for procured milk even after 45 days. The DMK government was never concerned about delayed payments. Had the prices not been hiked now, Aavin would have shut down soon. That would have led to dominance of private players who fix their own rates,” she said, adding that the state transport corporations were in a similar situation following frequent hikes in diesel prices by the Centre.

Ms Jayalalithaa said the state was giving Rs 60 crore to transport corporations and Rs 100 crore to milk cooperatives every month to keep them afloat. The chief minister said her predecessor Mr M. Karunanidhi was shedding “crocodile tears”.

“People would not be hoodwinked by his statements. He has no moral rig-ht to issue such stateme-nts,” Ms Jayalalithaa said.

Taking a dig at former allies, she said several of them had met her before elections and reposed faith in her leadership to steer the state’s economy.

“I leave it to their conscience to decide whether it is fair to criticise the price hikes.” Ms Jayalalithaa urged people to see through the Opposition game plan and continue to support her.