Poll panel says no to centre's economic push

The Election Commission is likely to impose curbs on the UPA government’s effort to push its economic agenda ahead of the polls. This would include a cap on gas prices from April 1 and not allowing foreign direct investment in construction and real estate sectors.

Updated on: Mar 24, 2014, 24:49:39 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Election Commission is likely to impose curbs on the UPA government’s effort to push its economic agenda ahead of the polls. This would include a cap on gas prices from April 1 and not allowing foreign direct investment in construction and real estate sectors.

On Thursday, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal had asked the commission not to allow the government to implement its decision to increase gas prices till the election process was over.

“This policy decision, which the government is set to implement from April 1, is a clear violation of the model code since it is directly aimed at providing huge financial benefits to Reliance Industries Limited and falls within the ambit of corrupt practices during elections,” Kejriwal had said in his letter to EC.

Reliance Industries had denied his claim, saying the gas price issue was based on a pricing formula. The government had decided to double the domestic gas price from April 1, keeping in view the high cost of imported gas.

An EC functionary, however, wondered at the hurry. “Postponing the gas price decision for two months will not make any difference to the company but would help ensure a level playing field in elections,” he said.

The EC is also not keen on letting the Centre allow FDI in construction and railways now, saying it could have electoral implications.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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