IMPHAL, January 18: The Kakching GPW Consumers Welfare Union has called an Independent People`™s Tribunal at Kakching on January 17 where over 500 LPG consumers testified their grievances before three juries.
According to a release of the Union, most of the complaints testified by the consumers are cheating and fraud connections. The Vice Chairperson of the Kakching Municipal Council, Y Nando Singh, Secretary General of Senior Citizen, Kakching, Ksh. Kulahari Singh and retired Zonal Education Officer, P. Nimai Singh were the juries of the tribunal, it said.
Consumers have been facing grievances while applying the Direct Benefit Transfer LPG (DBTL) scheme as they are asked to pay unknown charges of name changes, bank detail updating and transfer.
The Leibaklei Gas Agent is violating the guidelines provided by India Oil Corporation Ltd. in the matters of changing names, transfer and transferring within the family members and fees related.
Consumers, who have testified in the People`™s Tribunal, also said that they were cheated and given fraud LPG connection documents. For single cylinder with Pressure Regulator, they were charged Rs 7500/- to Rs 9000/- and Rs 13500/- for double cylinders.
The Subscription Vouchers (SV) belonging to other persons were issued with the pretext to issue the original later however, to some consumers, they were given their original SV while their Domestic Gas Customer Cards were given to other persons. Consumers who had been cheated and given the fraud connections, went to apply DBTL scheme by linking to their personal banks and were asked to transfer the connection to their names by paying the present company security deposit and other unknown charges.
The complaints of the consumers recorded before the tribunal with a memorandum is submitted to the Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies, Govt. of Manipur and National Consumers Disputes Redressal Commission to look into the grievances faced by the consumers, it said.
The Union is filling a Right to Information (RTI) against Leibaklei Gas Agent, Kakching to ensure to get the allocated LPG numbers of cylinders to each consumer, it said.