UPA-Left meet postponed

The Left parties would strongly raise the issue of hike in petroleum prices at the meeting of the coordination committee with the government at a later date.

The meeting which was scheduled for Thursday was postponed due to the death of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

The four Left parties have also sent their written response to the government on its clarifications on foreign direct investment in the telecom sector as well as on the draft Patents (Amendment) Bill, CPI(M) polit bureau member Sitaram Yechury said in New Delhi.

Besides these, the other items on the agenda would be the issue of employee provident fund interest rates and the government's intent to bring an ordinance to provide direct affiliation to minority institutions.

"We are opposed to the ordinance route and the government should bring in a legislation when parliament meets a few weeks from now," he said.

The Left-UPA coordination committee would meet this month and these issues would be on the agenda, Yechury said.

On their opposition to oil price rise, he said, now the global oil prices have now fallen below $50 per barrel and there is no justification for continuing the hike.

Secondly, when the administered price mechanism was dismantled by the erstwhile BJP-led government, it was promised that customs duty on petro products would be reduced. This has not been done so far, he said.

"The customs duty of petrol is Rs 18. If this duty is reduced, the petrol prices may in fact go down", the CPI(M) leader said, adding that the oil companies were reaping profits due to the increase in prices.

The parties are likely to demand rollback in price hike of LPG and diesel as these directly affect common man.