LPG: Officials paint rosy picture but hitches remain

Kochi: The deadline has expired and now Aadhar is mandatory for LPG subsidy unless a new order comes from the Union Petroleum Ministry setting another deadline.

Several people are yet to get their Aadhar cards, which has cast a shadow over petroleum firms’ officials claim that it is moving in the right direction.

They also claim that a lot of people have linked their LPG connections to Aadhar in the past one month alone.

“While two months ago, 53 percent people had linked Aadhar to LPG connection in Ernakulam, now it has gone up to nearly 70 percent while in certain districts it has gone up to 75 percent in the case of all oil companies,” said an official with Indian Oil Corporation in Kochi on Tuesday.

He said that in Pathanamthitta and Wayanad, where it was first launched, 90 percent of the total consumers have linked LPG to Aadhar.

However, several consumers who received their Aadhar cards also reported a delay in linking it to their LPG connections through agencies.

“It took four months to connect my Aadhar to my LPG connection at the gas agency while several other people are waiting for the linkage now,” said Manoj, a Bharat Gas customer at Edappally.

Customers of Indane in Pathanamthitta also reported non-remittance of subsidy in their accounts.

“It’s four months since my Aadhar card was linked to my LPG connection , but subsidy is yet to come,” said Mathew from Tiruvalla.

No Aadhaar? Then no LPG?subsidy

Thiruvananthapuram: From January 1, around 31 lakh consumers in the state who have not yet linked their Aadhaar number to their LPG connection would be left out of the purview of subsidy.

Only 57.27 percent of the consumers in the state have so far linked their LPG connections to Aadhaar.

The oil companies have decided to transfer the subsidy of LPG cylinders only through direct benefit transfer (DBT) to the consumer's bank account from Wednesday.

LPG consumers have  to link their bank account to Aadhaar to continue to avail of  the subsidy on nine cylinders per year.

Though the meeting of Congress MLAs recently in Delhi had demanded the extension of then time limit for the scheme for some more time, the centre has yet to take a decision on the issue.

Meanwhile, the case against linking LPG connection with Aadhaar is pending before the Supreme Court.

The deadline for linking Aadhaar with gas connections which was to end on November 30 was earlier extended for one more month.

Cooking Gas Consumers’ Forum Convener M. Sasidharan Nair told Deccan Chronicle that the central government should consider extending the deadline for at least one more month.