THE GAS TROUBLE GOVERNMENT ORDERS HARRASSMENT OF LPG CUSTOMERS

  By Firoz.T.T otanawala

The Bangalore Metro Reporter

15th Feb 2011 Issue-                                          

THE GAS TROUBLE

GOVERNMENT ORDERS HARRASSMENT OF LPG CUSTOMERS

The Energy Minister Shobha Karandlaje who also holds Food & Civil Supplies portfolio had declared a war on LPG customers. All of a sudden the Government ordered all the LPG customers to submit their APL cards, electricity bills containing the RR Numbers along with ID proof to their respective dealers. This move according to Sobha Karandlaje, will abolish bogus ration cards and misuse of LPG and to add “Climax” to the move, Sobha Karandlaje has made public the threat to her life by the gas mafia.

According to the Minister Sobha Karandlaje, there are 1.05 crore families in the state and 1.5 crores ration cards. This implies that there are 45 lakh bogus ration cards which need to be weeded out. On the contrary, there are more than 25 lakh bogus BPL cards in use and the Government has done nothing during the past two and a half years about the same.

WHAT IS THE MOVE ALL ABOUT?

Those LPG customers are ordered to submit the copies of their APL cards, electricity bills and ID proof to their respective LPG dealers. As per the Minister, these details will be fed into the computer, which will reveal more gas connections in a house for which the electricity bill will be the clincher.

Those customers who do not have APL cards have to submit the electricity bill and their ID. And for the tenants who have no separate meters, they too have to submit the electricity bill of their house owner.

Once the data base is created, the officials will inspect the premises to find out the bonafides of the customer. If during the spot inspection, they find more than one connection, they will penalize and cancel the extra gas connection. This will reduce number of gas connections and help in Government’s saving as the gas cylinders are subsidized!

In recent years the ration card was made compulsory for obtaining a gas connection but its use is also limited to the same extent. The ration card has lost its relevance after the Government stopped giving rations to the card holders and restricted its benefits to the BPL families only.

In fact, the old ration cards were replaced with APL cards which serve the purpose for address proof. Later, even this became irrelevant after the Election Commission introduced the photo voters cards. The voter ID cards have now become the most sought after document for address proof.

Yet, the APL cards continue to be in demand as the same is required for obtaining gas connections. No dealer could register an application for gas connections without the APL cards and it is in this specific area that APL plays a major role. It is another matter that the Food and Civil Supplies officials have established an unholy nexus with gas dealers to provide APL card “sheets” to the people so that they can get gas connections. Once a person gets the gas connection, he does not bother about getting permanent APL card as it becomes useless and besides, obtaining an APL card is a cumbersome task. First, one has to submit an application and seek an appointment for photo session with the all family members, who figure in the card. People will be lucky if they go through the photo session on the appointed day. More often than not, the entire family will be asked to come another day due to manual or technical problems.

Moreover, there is the procedure for verification of the address and other details of the application family. Interestingly, even in the APL, the department is following “temporary” rule and no regular APL cards are given. Apart from this, the department has stopped issuing the APL card as the contract to the private company in this regard has expired. Until the new contractor takes over, there is a freeze on the APL process itself.

Then what is that to do with the drive by the department to direct the gas customers to submit their electricity bills and ID proof? It is interesting to recall that the Government conducted a house to house survey last year to detect and eliminate double gas connections by the people. Customers were asked to keep only one connection and consequently large numbers of connections were surrendered.

If at all the Government was serious about weeding out bogus APL cards, it can easily undertake a special drive by the Food and Civil Supplies. It already has the details of all the APL cards and can get the gas dealers to provide the details of the gas connections obtained through APL. If the department officials double check the details and conduct inspections on the premises of the APL holders, the cat will be out of the bag.

Of course, the APL card for gas connections is a recent phenomenon. It is not that the gas agencies have not indulged in having “Extra” connections by procuring the APL cards from the department officially in benami names. But a thorough check of the APL cards and the gas connections obtained through APL can definitely produce the necessary results. There is no need for the department to create a scare among the customers.

If at all if the department wants to weed out the “surplus connections, it has to start from the gas agencies and department officials who have issued APL. In one go, the menace will be over but it will severely harm the interests of gas agencies and the officials of the department. And this will not be preferred by the Government.

Therefore, instead of striking at the root of the problem, the Government has preferred harassing the LPG customers.