Curse of Modi's LPG policy

Iboyaima Laithangbam *

File pic of filled LPG cylinders being sold in the black market :: Pix - TSE

Making cooking gas available to the people of slender means at subsidized rates is one of the commendable policies of Narendra Modi to help the poor sections and people should welcome it. But it has turned out to be a curse in Manipur since majority of the consumers have to pay Rs 1350 per cylinder. Through disinformation, paralysing rigmarole and evasive tactics only some consumers got their cards of gas supply formalised.

Kerosine which is used to adulterate petrol is so costly that even a heroin trafficker cannot afford to buy one litre from the local shops.

Gone are the days when people used to see villagers returning home at late evening with faggots of firewood on their heads. Unrestrained wildfire by the hunters and cultivators of the shifting cultivation had bereft the mountains of greenery. All families have the Hobson's choice to depend on the blackmarketeers of LPG cylinders who sell at the prohibitive price under the nose of the authorities.

Before the introduction of the policy of Modi one LPG cylinder was available on the blackmarket at around Rs 900. But today it was hiked to Rs 1350 and there is no haggling. Groups of gas agency employees are seen delivering cylinders to the fences and shop keepers and there is no authority to intervene.

The government has not spelled out the terms and conditions for formalising the gas consumer cards so that a consumer could get at subsidised rate. No specific information is available about those who want to buy at normal rate in response to the call given by Modi who plans to utilise Rs 100 crore thus saved for anti-poverty schemes. Certainly such persons in other parts of the country must not be buying at Rs 1350 each.

It is incumbent on the part of the Minister of CA, F & PD and his senior officials to come out with easy to understand notifications on these issues which are deliberately made convoluted and difficult for the consumers by the agencies. It should be an easy step for both the categories.

But things are made difficult and complicated so that spirited cylinders could be sold on the blackmarket. There is no mechanism to ensure that all cylinders issued to an agency are actually distributed to the consumers on time. While the cylinders were brought from Assam consumers felt lucky if they could get half filled cylinders. There was widespread siphoning

off at secluded eateries along the highways in Assam. Since there is no weighing system in Manipur it is for the consumers to say whether they are getting completely filled cylinders now that there is a gas bottling plant at Sekmai. As things stand the Manipuris have been paying exorbitant prices for all items.

Chicken is sold at Rs 60 a kg in Kolkata and Mumbai and Rs 80 at Bhubneswor whereas the cheapest rate in Manipur is Rs 180.

Beef is sold at Rs 110 in Delhi but at Rs 250 in Imphal.

The list of such items sold at exorbitant rates is endless and Okram Ibobi once told the House that state and non-state actors are extorting Rs 30 crore every day along the highways from Manipur's vehicles. There is no information what the government has done to plug the loopholes in the interest of the people who are thus fleeced.

When oil pumps are shut down at the slightest news of some wildcat strike, blockade or any disruption and fuel is sold illegally and dangerously under the nose of the police and the minister does not lift a finger. The stilted silence of the government despite the twisting of the Modi scheme is therefore understandable.

It is not known whether the state unit BJP has brought these corruption angles to the notice of the higher ups. If unchecked the scheme of Modi to help the poor people will actually become anti-people and counter productive and the people will register their protest in the forthcoming ADC elections.

The state leaders can ignore the writings on the wall only at the peril of the party which is frantically trying to open its accounts in the elective body.