Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa asks to restore state kerosene quota

Chennai: Terming the reduction in allocation of kerosene to Tamil Nadu by the Central government  ‘unfair and cruel’, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Saturday said that Tamil Nadu had been deprived of more the 55 per cent of its actual requirement of kerosene over the past three years which severely penalised the poor and deprived.

In a letter to Prime Minister Modi, Jayalalithaa pointed out that the actual requirement of kerosene as per the entitlement of the ration card holders in the state was 65,140 kilo litres per month. “Against this entitlement, the ministry of petroleum and natural gas had allocated 59,780 kilo litres per month until March 2010. Thereafter, this allocation was successively reduced on 10 occasions bringing down the monthly allocation of kerosene to the state to just 29,056 kilo litres,” she said.

She added that the reduction in allocation effected based on data relating to the number of LPG domestic connections had many infirmities as she claimed that there was a huge data gap of 56.16 lakh connections between the data released by the  Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas and the family card data on the number of LPG connections in the state.

“While the increase in LPG connections is a nationwide trend, reduction of allocation of kerosene does not seem to be directly correlated as the allocation for some states has not been reduced to the same extent. I presume that this allocation was made at the official level following past precedent. I am disappointed to learn that even the latest order dated July 1, 2014, has allocated only 29,060 kilo litres of kerosene per month,” the Chief Minister stated in her letter.

Jayalalithaa urged the Prime Minister to intervene and undo the injustice done to TN and allot the entire requirement of kerosene to the state.