With the cap on subsidized cooking gas cylinders fixed at nine per year, orphanages, charitable homes and hostels in the city are feeling the heat. Their operational costs have shot through the roof and the managers of these institutions are aghast at the judgement of authorities concerned in limiting the number of subsidized cooking gas cylinders to an orphanage or hostel with 100 inmates to the same as that of a five-member household.
The Government Law College hostel with 80 inmates is one of the institutions in the city bearing the brunt of the limited allocation of cooking gas cylinders.
Girisankar S.S., warden, said the hostel has to depend on non-subsidized cooking gas cylinders priced at about Rs.1,100 for most part of the year. “A cylinder does not last for more than a couple of weeks in the hostel. The increased expense on cooking gas cylinders means that each inmate has to shell out an additional Rs.300-Rs.400 a month,” he said. Though the college had raised the issue at a college development committee meeting chaired by the District Collector, a solution has not yet been reached.
The situation is even worse in the case of orphanages and charitable homes. These institutions were earlier not entitled to the nine subsidized cylinders. It was only after the Board of Control of Orphanages and Other Charitable Homes, Kerala, intervened that it was decided that the institutions would be treated on par with households, said K.K. Moni, member secretary of the Board.
Fr. Vincent Naduvilaparambil, president, Ernakulam Orphanages Association, said the State wing of the Association had petitioned the Chief Minister and the Board on the issue. “An orphanage or a charitable home with an average of 50 inmates needs at least 15 cylinders a year considering that they have to serve four meals a day,” he said. Fr. Naduvilaparambil said the association had sought one cylinder for every 10 inmates, but they were yet to get a response.
K. Tulasi, Board member in charge of Ernakulam, said unlimited subsidized cylinders were being provided by oil companies to institutions registered under the Societies Registration Act, whereas organisations registered under the Charitable Endowments Act were denied that benefit. “Some homes have been receiving this benefit. But it has been selective and most charitable homes were receiving only nine subsidized cylinders,” she said.
Fr. Varghese Kuttipuzhayil, manager of Perumbavoor-based St. Thomas Orphanage, said with a single cooking gas connection and limited number of subsidized cylinders, the institution was finding it increasingly difficult to feed its 120 inmates. “We need at least three cylinders a month. Earlier, we used to manage with firewood. Now with the onset of monsoon, firewood has become scarce and it’s not easy to use dampened wood,” he said.
