Govt non-chalant on LPG abuse
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, September 27 2014 : Even as subsidized domestic LPG which should be distributed to only BPL families are being used extensively and openly in commercial units of Imphal and greater Imphal areas, the State Government has been non-chalantly overlooking these discrepancies.

It is a common knowledge that almost all commercial units have been using subsidized LPG refills, one IOC official told The Sangai Express.

The Sekmai LPG bottling plant has the capacity to cater to the 14 days requirement of registered LPG consumers.

When there is highway blockade for 10 days, the number of backlog consumers multiply manifold.

There is a backlog of two months at present.

Although the additional storage bullet is almost complete, the same cannot be commissioned as it is yet to receive explosive (safety) certificate.

IOC has no role in distribution of LPG.

It's role is restricted to marketing.

IOC has very little room for intervention once LPG has been supplied to distributors.

IOC officials know exactly how subsidized LPG refills are pilfered or diverted to commercial units.

There are also cases where consumers sell out subsidized LPG refills to commercial units for some profit.

Enhancement of LPG supply to registered consumers demand pro-active and positive intervention of the State Government.

On the part of the IOC, it has already put up a proposal to set up a task force for every district which comprise of DCs and SPs among others in order to check use of subsidized LPG refills in commercial units.

However the Government is not very responsive to the proposal, said the IOC official.

There is no instance of any consumer lodging any complaint even though they do not get the full number of LPG refills entitled to them in a year.

On the other hand, the Government of India has already hiked the annual LPG cap to 12 .

Even if LPG consumers of the State never get the full number of LPG refills entitled to them, they do not lodge any complaint and rather purchase LPG refills from black markets at inflated prices.

For Manipur and many other Northeastern States, it would be impossible to provide subsidized LPG refills to consumers 12 times in a year because of the sub-standard transport infrastructure and volatile law and order situation.

Even if 12 refills cannot be made available in a year, effective prohibition on use of subsidized LPG in commercial units and their sale in black markets would go a long way in ensuring that minimum LPG requirements are met.

Some LPG distributors of Imphal said that they have to struggle a lot to get 5814 refills in a month even though they distribute 25,000 to 30,000 consumers.

This is totally contradictory with the Government of India's decision that a distributor having 30,000 consumers should be supplied 30,000 LPG refills in a month, they added.

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