TNN | Jan 30, 2015, 01.59AM IST
HYDERABAD: Several cases of delayed delivery of gas cylinders were witnessed throughout January due to lack of delivery boys.
LPG dealers said that a slew of festivals spread across the month prompted most of the gas delivery boys to take long vacations.
"Since it was the festival season, many delivery boys had taken long vacation. Otherwise, the delivery would have been prompter," said Shrikanth, proprietor of a gas agency at Imarat.
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"However, people should not worry since dealers have adequate supply of gas cylinders" assistant manager, LPG Bharat Petroleum Corporation, R Umapathy said.
At the same time, there have been complaints from residents that the delivery boys are charging exorbitant amounts as delivery charges. "If we refuse to pay the charges, they are willfully delaying the delivery to our house," said Venkat Ram, a resident of Safilguda. However, Shrikanth has a different take on the issue. "Usually, the delivery boys ask for some extra cash to round off the figure in a bid to avoid tendering exact change," he said.
Adding to the consumers' woes, there have been a series of glitches that have been reported with the online software that links bank accounts with LPG benefits scheme. This comes after the government insisted on consumers giving their bank account numbers instead of the Aadhaar card number.
"The government has come to the conclusion that since almost everyone has a bank account, the Modified Direct Benefits Transfer for LPG (MDBTL) be deposited into their accounts directly," said C Parthasarathi, commissioner, civil supplies department.
However, consumers say that bankers were denying their request for linkage because of software problems in feeding and linking their accounts to the LPG numbers. The reason, according to bankers, that is their software is not accepting the 17-digit unique ID number provided for linkage by the authorities (for those who do not have Aadhaar card).