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Inevitable Decision United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government on Wednesday midnight took the ‘inevitable’ decision of increasing the fuel prices. Soaring oil prices is the international oil market had put the Indian Government into a tight spot. Subsidies were increasing and the financial situation of the oil companies deteriorating day by day. Oil companies had left with a very low cash flow and an immediate decision was required to bail them out of the ‘gruesome situation’. These companies had been incurring huge losses for past several months and it was necessary to save them from being financially crunch.

No Options Though the crude oil prices had doubled since the last year, rates of diesel and petrol had remained unchanged. Because of steep increase in International oil prices government had left with no options. This was an inevitable decision that was being expected by everyone. Though the decision is unpopular but it was required to ensure the uninterrupted supply of the petroleum products.

Increasing Losses Defending the decision of his government, PM has said that to a certain limit government can keep the keep the consumer prices unaffected by the rising oil prices in the international market. If the oil companies go on incurring losses then they will be left with no money to import oil from abroad. Government had to take the tough decision as it had allocated large financial amounts for social sector programs and farming. All these programs require huge financial amounts that mostly depend on higher revenues of the Government.

Increase in Prices Government has increased the petrol prices by Rs 5, Diesel by Rs 3 and cooking gas by Rs 50 per cylinder but kerosene has been left untouched. This decision has been hailed by the Indian Industry chambers. On government’s part the custom duty has been reduced on crude oil from 5 per cent to nil, and on petrol and diesel from 7.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent.

Alternative Energy Sources Almost all political parties whether they are in opposition, Left or UPA’s allies have criticized the decision as many of them have threatened to launch national wide protests. This criticism of government is only politically motivated. Oil shocks have always slowed down the growth rate. To avoid this kind of setbacks and criticism government will have to look for the alternatives of the petroleum energy in future.

Embarrassing Incident In an embarrassing incident, three Delhi police cops were found drinking with a murder accused inside his shop. The accused, a property dealer, had allegedly shot dead another property dealer on Friday. He had surrendered before police on Sunday and was supposed to be behind bars.. The family members of the murder victim had taken pictures of the drunken policeman lying inside the shop of the accused on Tuesday night after his colleagues had fled. This is the second incident in the time of three days when Delhi policemen have been found indulging in criminal activities.

Not First Time This is not first time that policemen have been found red handed. There are thousands of policemen accused of participating in criminal activities. People were shocked to see a report in which it was revealed that more than 1400 Punjab policemen are involved in crimes ranging from fake currency rackets to murder and rape. It involved even some officers of the rank of Director General of Police, ADFPs, IGP’s and many more. This is not the story of just one state but every state is having its’ erring cops. Firing at agitating Gujjars, Nandigram, Kannaut Place shootout are some of the examples when policemen used power at their will.

Old Rules Police forces of most of the states of India are working according to the rules that were made during the British rule. A very few changes have been done in those rules. Till then a lot have changed. India has its problems that are very new and cannot be dealt according to the old police rules. In the times of nuclear threats, modern bomb blasts triggering device they work round the clock, even without safety equipments. Militancy in Punjab, J&K, and many other states triggered the debates among administrative circles for reforming the police rules and modernizing the police. But it never happened except in some states.

Reforms Necessity of the time is to reform the police rules, modernization and proper schedule of duty hours. As militancy is the biggest threat in the modern time there must be some rules that should give some freedom to the cops. If government follows some the basic steps required then such embarrassing situations can be avoided.