L Saravanan, TNN | Feb 6, 2015, 02.32PM IST
MADURAI: The oil and natural gas ministry on Thursday filed a counter affidavit at the Madurai bench of the Madras high court to a PIL challenging the linking of Aadhaar and bank details with domestic gas cylinder to avail subsidy under the modified direct benefit transfer of LPG (MDBTL) scheme.
Filing the counter affidavit before the division bench of Chief Justice Sanyaj Kishan Kaul and justice Dr S Tamilvana, under secretary of the ministry A Ushabala said the Central government launched the MDBTL scheme in 54 districts on November 15 last year and in the rest of the country on January 1 this year.
As per the scheme, two options were given to consumers to receive LPG subsidy — either linking Aadhaar number to bank account number and to the LPG consumer number, which is the earlier method, or directly linking consumer number with bank account without Aadhaar.
Thus, no LPG consumer will be denied subsidy on account of lack of Aadhaar number. Further, the scheme had ensured to stop diversion of subsidized cylinder to commercial establishments and thereby saved public money.
In an exercise to prevent multiple connections to a household, one crore active LPG connections were blocked so far and it will lead to an indicative recurring subsidy saving of Rs 3,948 crore per annum, the under secretary said.
Besides, Know Your Customer and de-duplication process prior to release of a new connection is now mandatory. It has resulted in detection of 1.58 million applications (8%) as duplicate and hence rejection of the same.
Moreover, the matter relating to Aadhaar is being adjudicated upon by the SC and an additional affidavit on MDBTL scheme has also been submitted before it. Hence, it is appropriate to wait for the judgment, the affidavit said.
Above all, the LPG that is supplied as a public distribution system (PDS) commodity under the Essential Commodities Act, which does not prevent the government from deploying technological solutions to improve the efficiency of the PDS system.
And administrative decision made in the interest of public does not warrant judicial review, Ushabala said.
Hence, the PIL has been filed on a wrong premise and it has no merits. The PIL is liable to be set aside, Ushabal said.
Following it, the division bench adjourned the matter by three weeks.