Gurudas hails move to file criminal cases on gas pricing issue

CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta on Tuesday welcomed Arvind Kejriwal government's move to file criminal cases against Reliance Industries and Union minister Veerappa Moily, among others, on gas pricing issue.

"I welcome Kejriwal's move to take up the case of KG Basin and the hike in gas prices allowed by the government. It is a total fraud committed by the government, particularly Moily, for allowing steep hike in gas prices from $4-8 on the basis of an unsubstantiated survey," Dasgupta said.

"It is once again a case of the government being hand-in-gloves with the top-most corporate house to give them unfettered profits," the senior communist leader, who has been raising the issue for the past several months and has gone to the Supreme Court, said.

He accused Moily of recently "removing the Director General of Hydrocarbons who had opined that there was no need for increasing the gas prices."

"It is a loot of public money. (The government's decision to hike gas prices) will seriously affect the power and fertiliser sectors," Dasgupta said.

The CPI leader's comments came after the Delhi Government ordered filing of criminal cases against Moily, former minister Murli Deora, Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani and others following complaints of irregularities in the pricing of natural gas in the KG basin blocks.