Consumers being short changed ? Disconnection drive and KYC
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: March 13, 2013 -

File pic of a long queue before a gas agency :: Pix - TSE

The figure is revealing. It cannot be merely a question of a large number of LPG consumers unable to meet the stipulations laid down by the Indian Oil Corporation, but points to the existence of a 'system' which had allowed such a situation to come to pass.

Take the figure into consideration. Out of the total of 2.96 LPG connections, only 89,300 consumers have been able to meet the criteria laid down by the IOC.

A case of the gas agencies doling out connections, left, right and centre by leapfrogging the official procedures or the stipulations and criterion laid down by the IOC not being compatible in a place like Manipur ?

Either way it is a damning indication that somewhere in the chain of command, someone or a group of people had not done their homework well enough.

Goes well with the description of a place where there is a thriving black market for filled LPG cylinders.

A walk down through memory lane, in the not too distant past, such as the more than 100 days of highway blockade in 2011 should be enough to illustrate the meaning and understanding of the term 'thriving black market' of filled LPG cylinders.

Such a situation also goes well with the understanding of a place, where home delivery means consumers standing in long queues at the agency's godown to get their refilled LPG cylinders.

Know Your Customer. This is the line that has gained currency after the Centre decided to restrict the quota of subsidised LPG to 6 cylinders a year per consumer (enhanced to nine later) and the interesting question is what norms were followed earlier to grant gas connections to consumers at subsidised rate ?

As things stand today, a number of gas connections have been suspended, ostensibly for failing to meet the stipulations laid down by the IOC, but how about the agencies which granted the connections in the first place ?

So far there is nothing to suggest that strictures would be initiated against any gas agency for granting the connections without following the procedures laid down earlier.

Customers being short changed is not something new in Manipur. A case of low awareness on the rights of the consumers or indifference to the fact that the consumers are being taken for a ride.

The fresh drive taken up, including the suspension of gas connections of numerous consumers, comes close to the case of the consumers being once again short changed.

Is it a case of the consumers providing wrong information to the agencies at the time of getting the gas connection or is it a case of the gas agencies failing to follow the standard procedure ?

This is a question which the IOC should raise.

After all how does one explain the fact that more than 50 percent of the gas consumers have not been able to meet the conditions laid down by the IOC.

Surely it could not have been the case of consumers alone scripting the mess that one sees around today in the sphere of LPG connection.

The existence of a 'system' is palpable. It is this 'system' which has nourished and nurtured the flourishing black market in LPG.

It is this 'system' again which may be responsible for the failure of the Government and the authority concerned to crack down on commercial establishments using the subsidised cooking gas.

The drive taken up to identify bogus connections may be a good start to check pilferage and misutilisation of subsidised cooking gas, but something more needs to be done.

Know Your Customer should not only be about consumers filling up some forms, but should be an exercise to make everyone accountable, starting from the gas agencies.