Mangaluru (The Hindu): Union Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said that one should not think that the government was not passing on the benefits of the fall in crude oil price to the common man by reducing fuel prices, as the government was pumping in additional funds generated out of increased customs duty on fuel to augment infrastructure projects.

The Minister was responding to a question at a press conference. Ms. Sitharaman said that the government had in fact reduced the prices eight to nine times. At the same time, augmenting the infrastructure too was high on the government’s agenda and funds were being pooled in to that sector.

Ms. Sitharaman said that the government had been able to usher in development through various programmes and projects including empowerment of the poor and women, building infrastructure, and unleashing a new governance paradigm.

Earlier, addressing the Vikas Parva programme, Ms. Sitharaman said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the government were not working for any single individual or entity, but for all the residents of India. “This itself is a new governance paradigm where there is no appeasement of anyone. The government is not helping the poor and women, instead is empowering them to come out of poverty and become self reliant,” she said.

Union Minister of State for Home Haribhai Chowdhary, and Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP, were present.

While the National Democratic Alliance government has been claiming of having speeded up infrastructure projects, Union Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday blamed “inherited” problems of the previous government for the tardy progress of four-laning of NH 66 between Talpady and Kundapura.

The Minister was in Mangaluru to participate in the Vikas Parva programme. She said that hundreds of highway projects had been in limbo and the new government had to sort them out.