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Union I& B minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday rejected former finance minister P. Chidambaram’s claim that the 5.7 per cent growth rate which the Indian economy has clocked in the first quarter of the current fiscal was on account of the policies of the previous UPA regime. Mr Javadekar said that the Modi government has put an end to the phenomenon of “policy paralysis” witnessed under the UPA rule. He said that while Mr Chidambaram was “free” to make such claims, the economic buoyancy witnessed in the country is the “reflection” of the action taken by the Narendra Modi government. “It doesn’t matter what Chidambaram says because people have seen in this country how the economy got decayed, how it was destroyed during their UPA’s 10- year government. Today they are seeing the difference,” Mr Javadekar said. At least three persons, including two women, were killed and eight others critically wounded on Monday when a gas pipeline of Assam Gas Company exploded in Upper Assam’s Sibsagar district.

The fire, which broke out after explosion in the high- pressure LPG supplyline engulfed the area and six houses were gutted, and several livestock were also burnt.

Sibsagar superintendent of police Debajit Sarma told reporters that an underground pipeline of the Assam Gas Company exploded near Singlijan tea estate under the Moranhat police station of the district.