By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The undue harassment being meted out to the LPG consumers due to the frequent directives for re-verification of their documents has prompted the Independent legislator, Manas Chaudhuri to raise the matter in the Assembly on Thursday .
“Only last year, the poor consumers were told to do the re-verification. But again the consumers were asked to do the verification”, Chaudhuri said.
To undertake the same exercise over and over again is totally unjustified. This is some kind of harassment on the poor consumers, Chaudhuri said during the Question Hour.
The Independent legislator also wanted to know whether the Government is aware that the consumers, who have two LPG connections were asked to surrender one.
“The consumers who have more than one connection were asked to surrender the other before September 15,” he said.
Chaudhuri also wanted to know from the Government whether it is true that the consumers are supposed to get 14 LPG refilled cylinders at a subsidized rate in a year.
“I would request the Goverment to take all possible steps to see that Indian Oil Coporation (IOC) and Gas Agencies provide 14 LPG refilled cylinders at the subsidized rates to all genuine consumers,” the Independent legislator said.
In reply, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Prof RC Laloo denied that the Government issued fresh directive for re-verification of the LPG consumers’ documents.
“In fact, the latest verification was as per the directive of the IOC. This order for re-verification was issued by the Deputy Commissioners following the request of the IOC Area Manager,” Prof Laloo said.
He also expressed confidence that once the re-verification of documents is completed by September 31, this would definitely improve the distribution of LPG cylinders to the consumers.
The Minister surprisingly admitted that the government had no clue about the directive for surrendering “extra cylinders”. According to Food and Civil Supplies Minister, the Deputy Commissioners will continue to pressure various gas agencies to improve their performance.
“We want the gas agencies to provide the best services to the consumers as expected,” Prof Laloo added.
