It has been a month since Ikramullah Baig took delivery of a domestic LPG gas cylinder. He had paid Rs.1,040. Since then the 57 year-old regularly makes rounds of the bank to check if the subsidy amount has been credited to his bank account.
“I went at least ten times to the bank and in the last visit the officials requested me to come during the afternoons as they are busy with routine business in the morning hours,” a harried Baig says.
Mr. Baig is not alone in facing this ordeal. Almost every other family in the city’s south has a similar experience. Though most have made it a point to submit their Aadhaar card details and photocopies at the gas agency and at the bank to facilitate the linkage, not many have been refunded the subsidy by the authorities.
“The agency delivered the cylinder about a month ago and till date there is no word about the subsidy money being refunded. The delivery boys collected the Rs. 1,050 and assured the subsidy will be credited in the account within two days,” Shaheen Begum, a housewife laments. “We have now lost hope of getting the money back,” she adds. For many, just to enquire about the money being credited into their bank account is turning out to be a costly affair.
“I have an account at State Bank of Hyderabad at Shahalibanda and for every visit to bank I am forced to spend Rs. 60. I visited the bank twice in the last fortnight but to no avail,” a house wife says.
“Bank officials send off people who come to enquire as they see it as an additional burden,” Syed Rasheed, a trader from Misrigunj complains.
