Suman Chakraborti, TNN Oct 31, 2013, 04.47AM IST
KOLKATA: Petroleum companies are sticking to the November 1 deadline for LPG customers to have Aadhaar Card enrolment for the subsidy transfer when Aadhaar enrolment in the state stands at a poor 41%.
However, there will be a window of three months for those who are yet to get enrolled. After this period, LPG customers with or without Aadhaar registration have to buy cylinders at the market rate (ranging from Rs 930 to Rs 950).
The state government had earlier asked the two nodal agencies - ECIL and ITI - to complete the entire process of enrolment and distribution of Aadhaar cards by February 28. According to figures till October 15, only 41% of the population has been covered and a meager 26.55% cards have been generated so far. Only in two districts - in Howrah and Cooch Behar - that the percentage of enrolment has crossed the 70% mark. The process of enrolment and generation of cards have been very slow in three Jangalmahal districts.
Aadhaar-linked cash transfer of subsidy to banks will start in Kolkata, Howrah and Cooch Behar from Friday. But as of now, the average enrolment with the respective LPG dealers is very low in all these districts. Indian Oil DGM (LPG) R N Ghosh said the picture is dismal for Kolkata with Aadhaar registration of only 3.5%. "Out of 6.5 lakh customers of IOC in the city (excluding Salt Lake), Aadhaar registration has been completed for 23,000 customers," he added. Aadhaar registration figure in Howrah is 9% for IOC while it is relatively better in Cooch Behar (16.5%).
A Bharat Petroleum Corporation ( BPCL) official added that the figure was 3% each in Kolkata and Howrah while it was 5% for Cooch Behar. The figure is more or less same for Hindustan Petroleum.
The state has been lagging behind other states in terms of enrolment. Work in Bengal was hampered several times due to back-to-back elections. No work could be done for three months due to the panchayat elections and then again for polls in 14 municipalities. Again, there was almost no more progress in the last one month due to the various festivities.
Aadhar card enrollment and generation in different districts
enrollment generation
Kolkata - 61.32 % 55.73 %
North 24 Parganas - 28.82 % 10.79 %
South 24 Parganas - 34.4 % 23.88 %
Bankura - 12.81 % 4.44 %
Birbhum - 32.9 % 8.30 %
Darjeeling - 31.44 % 26.17 %
Malda - 42.29 % 35.57 %
Purulia - 18.2 % 7.68 %