Something is fishy here. Very fishy, if one may add.
If you have an Aadhaar card and link it with your consumer number at the local Gas agency, chances are you would have received only one or two LPG refills in the current financial year.
On the other hand if you do not have Aadhaar card or are still in the process of getting one then chances are you will get 11 LPG refills in four months.
This is what is happening at Zingso Gas Agency in Ukhrul.
Go through the report ‘Zingso issues 11 refills to two consumers from April to July’ which appeared in the October 15 edition of The Sangai Express and one will get an idea of what is being said here.
Out of the 7831 consumers listed with the said agency, 3310 consumers have received only one refill this financial year while 11 refills have been issued to two consumers who have not yet submitted their Aadhaar number.
Moreover 10 refills each have been issued to 11 consumers, nine refills each to 14 consumers, eight refills each to 15 consumers and seven refills each to 29 consumers.
The common thread running through here is none of them have submitted their Aadhaar numbers.
Making things more interesting and flummoxing is the point that the two consumers who have been issued 11 refills till July received their refills on the same day on April 14, April 25, May 11, May 14, May 31, June 9, June 30, July 11, July 22, July 26 and July 29!
The question is just how many days does a filled LPG cylinder last ?
How did a consumer who received a refill on April `14 receive the next delivery on April 25 ?
Or did the filled LPG issued on May 11 run out by May 14 that the consumer was issued the same again on May 14 ?
Doesn’t this amount to saying that a filled LPG cylinder runs out in three days ?
Something here is very fishy and it is this which should be taken note of and action taken up accordingly.
It is difficult to believe that this could have been done without the active participation of someone from within the gas agency.
LPG distribution is no doubt under the IOC but this is a case which the State police can investigate and take up action according to law.
Or is someone taking advantage of the fact that LPG is not much in demand in the hill districts, Ukhrul included ?
But then if the demand is not so huge then why should one single agency have as many as 7831 consumers.
It is also worth noting that while 22 refills have been issued in the name of just two consumers in four months, the said agency has issued refills to only 6022 consumers out of the total 7831 in its list.
This means that 1709 consumers of the agency have not been issued a single refill this financial year.
What is happening ? Daylight robbery is the term that comes to mind.
This brings forth the bigger question of whether the hill based LPG agencies really distribute the cooking gas at the place of their location or not.
This is a point which has emerged from the series of stories The Sangai Express has been rolling out under “WANTED : Cooking Gas, Not Laughing Gas” and it will go on.
The authority need to wake up to the series of stories under this slogan for this concerns everyone in Manipur.
Source: The Sangai Express
