Mysore Grahakara Parishat held its monthly public meeting on 9-2-14 and discussed problems confronted by the LPG consumers. Mysore district is one of the 54 districts all across the country which were chosen to launch a pilot programme for Aadhaar card based direct benefit transfer (DBT) for LPG consumers, because Aadhaar enrolment in Mysore is very high. When the other districts in the country are getting LPG at a subsidized prices, consumers in Mysore district (and the other 53 chosen districts) are charged the market price on delivery and the subsidy amount is directly credited to their bank accounts. The objective of this scheme is to weed out bogus beneficiaries and to thus plug the leakage of the subsidy.
But the scheme is facing numerous problems leading to hardship to consumers. Upon announcement of the meeting, MGP received more than 30 written complaints and many of the complainants also attended the meeting. Dr. K. Rameshwarappa, Deputy Director of Food and Civic Supplies attended on behalf of the Deputy Commissioner, Mysore, Mr. V.U.Baby, Deputy Director, Indian Oil Corporation represented the three oil companies and Mr. C.R. Krishna (Little Gas) represented the LPG distribution companies. They heard the complaints and explained the reasons for the problems. Some problems could be ascribed to the gas agencies or the banks, but some others were due to mismatching information given by the consumers themselves. The National Payment Corporation Limited (NPCL) which is in charge of DBT transfers the subsidy amount into the customer account based on the Aadhar, bank account number and gas registration numbers. Therefore, incorrect or inadequate information with respect to these numbers leads to non-transfer of the subsidy or transfer to the wrong accounts. The status of Aadhar seeding can be found at the website .
Dr. K. Rameshwarappa agreed that a nodal agency which could attend to the grievances of the public is required. Consumers are now going from one agency to another in search of solutions.
Regarding the recent Supreme Court order saying that Aadhar should not be required for availing of the LPG subsidy, the officials said that the government has not issued any new order to comply with the Court order. So they are following the existing order which insists on Aadhar for availing the subsidy.
There was general agreement that there are many unresolved problems with DBT in Mysore. But surprisingly, the central government has declared the DBT scheme in the 54 pilot districts a success and is extending it to other parts of the country.
R Chandra Prakash, MGP