TNN | Apr 27, 2016, 10.42 PM IST
Kolhapur: As many as 94% of citizens in the district possessing Aadhaar cards are receiving subsidy for gas cylinders directly in their bank accounts.
Of the 7,39,256 gas consumers in the district, 7,00,513 are receiving the subsidy directly in their accounts as part of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBTL) scheme.
District supply officer Vivek Agawane said that that over seven lakh liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) consumers have linked their Aadhaar card numbers with their gas connections and bank accounts. "It is technically called cash transfer compliance which these customers have completed. There have been cases where people have linked their Aadhaar number with LPG account, but not with their bank account. In some cases, the Aadhaar number is linked with bank account, but not with the LPG connection. To complete the procedure, citizens have to submit details of the Aadhaar card number to the cylinder supplying agency," he said.
In order to ensure transparency, the Centre has directed all gas connection holders to link their Aadhaar numbers with their respective banks as there was no proper estimate of how many cylinder customers were there in each district. The misinformation was also used by the state owned PSUs to get more benefits of subsidized amount from the union government.
After registering the Aadhaar number or bank account number with the distributor, consumers have to register the Aadhaar number or LPG number with the bank. But the banks are finding hard to deal with the large number of consumers. "Since there are numerous LPG connections, they line up in banks to register their details. It has proven to be a burden for bank employees who are already bogged down with a manpower shortage. On the other hand, customers who uploaded Aadhaar numbers on the website of the petroleum companies also faced issues since there was no uniformity in processing the documents. The data has been coming from various sources to one common server, hence, it took some time to settle the system," said a senior bank official from Kolhapur.
A Radhanagari-based state government officer said that people in the rural areas are politically well-connected and this has helped the district report a higher compliance number. "Every political leader has appointed some of his close aides to help locals get their Aadhaar number linked with the bank and LPG agency. As these people are well aware of the government schemes and how to provide information, most of the rural population is now shifting to LPG connections and enrolling for DBTL. The state government has nearly stopped kerosene supply in the district and provided various relaxations so that more people from rural areas and families below poverty line shift to LPG connections," said the officer.
Company Customers Compliance %
