LPG Gas cylinders Aadhaar Cards 2013

LPG Gas cylinders Aadhaar Cards 2013

HAVING received no clear directives from the Center  the state government has said that it will continue to consider the Aadhaar card number important to get a gas subsidy. Chief secretary J Banthia has said that the state will continue to link LPG gas cylinders with Aadhaar cards for subsidy transfer till further notice. 

"We have not got any clear directives from the Centre so we will continue the linkage," he said. After this directive, gas agencies became busy contacting their customers to rush and make their Aadhaar cards as well as submitting the documents to the banks at the earliest. "We have been contacting all the clients and asking them to give us their Aadhar card numbers. If they do not give it they will have to give up their subsidy its announced by the government," said an agency official based in Put gate area.

Another agency has been  contacting clients and even conducting drives in a school nearby to enable people to have their numbers soon. As per Ihe arrangement, the market price for cooking gas is around Rs 950 to Rs 1,000 per cylinder. Households are entitled to nine discounted cylinders each year which cost Rs 450 - less than half that sum. Once the Aadhar-LPG scheme becomes mandatory, families will not get discounted cylinders. Instead, the subsidy will be transferred directly into their bank accounts.

lb get the benefit however, citizens will have to get an Aadhaar number, link it to their bank account and also to their consumer number at the LPG agency.

Pune district collector too said that the linkage is picking up and said that they have received no further notice from the Center  "The Aadhaar card helps to link up the gas agency and owner with the bank account and the subsidy will be transferred to the bank," said an official.

Officials say the Aadhaar number will help weed out duplicate or ghost beneficiaries of welfare schemes. "The direct cash transfer will ensure that subsidies reach the real beneficiary and are not diverted," said officials from the state Information Technology Department.

However, citizens feel that they should be given time as even though they will register now, they will get the card three months later, so in effect, they will stand to lose out on the subsidy.

"There is of course a certain group that doesn't have even basic bank accounts. That percentage needs to improve before any such scheme is launched," said another agency dealer in a rural area, who has come across several such cases. There are also questions being raised about Aadhaar—which was supposed to be voluntary. "Why is it being made compulsory now?" asks a district official. The parliamentary standing committee had rejected a Bill which proposed making the Unique Identification Authority of India, which is overseeing the project, into a statutory authority.