Mumbai: Belying all fears and apprehensions, the price hike in Petrol and other products of crude oil has been postponed to a date beyond Ayyappa’s Makara Vilakku celebrations on Sankramana Day around Jan 15, providing great relief on New Year’s Eve and season, for all vehicle owners and motor runners.

The rupee value was collapsing day in and day out, and imported crude oil needed a heavy allotment of funds, but the burden is now oil those big oil companies themselves, like IOC and HPCL.

The oil sellers had made a demand for petrol price rise with the Union Government which kept postponing such demand till Jan 15,2012. The UPA Government is wary to tread on dangerous grounds.

There was a likely hike of Rs 2 a litre, but that needed a green signal from UPA, so ministers played ‘hide and seek’ with the oil companies under one pretext or other.

The temporary relief allows ‘economically unsafe’ groups in society, to heave a long sigh for 2 weeks now, as everyday essentials often go copying  rise with oil price hikes, if you know what we mean. The states elections in near future also warn congress Party of certain pitfalls, oil prices hike being one of them.