The process to identify the fake LPG connections will be completed within a week, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies and Energy Shobha Karandlaje said on Saturday.
Speaking to presspersons after inaugurating a function to lay the foundation stone for a building of the KEB Engineers' Association here, the Minister said the electricity meter numbers would be cross-checked with the customer identification numbers issued by gas agencies. She said that records had been submitted for 50 lakh LPG connections of the total of 76 lakh connections issued.
Clear picture
Simultaneously, the department has also undertaken the task of verifying the door number and identification numbers given by gas agencies.
This would also help in getting a clear picture of exactly how many ration cards are there in the State (families with gas connections were asked to submit ration cards of electricity metre numbers in a special drive launched by the State Government early this year).
Nearly half the work in this regard had been completed in the rural areas.
Within a month and a half, the state government would know how many ration cards were fake. After the bogus cards are identified, ration cards can be given to people who do not have them yet, she said.
The Minister said that there were 1.17 crore families in Karnataka but 1.76 crore ration cards had been issued. It was found that there were instances of a single family having over 10 ration cards, she said.
Poor infrastructure
Despite having enough electricity, the state government was not able to supply power to Bagalkot district because of certain infrastructural bottlenecks.
The infrastructure in the district has not been upgraded in the last 25-30 years, Ms. Karandlaje said.
Ms. Karandlaje said that during this period, upgradation of essential infrastructure such as installation of new lines and setting up of new stations was not done. In Belgaum alone 27 new sub-stations of 120 kV, 11 kV and 66 kV had been sanctioned, she said.
She also said that there was a shortage of about 1,500 linemen and 401 linemen were required for Mescom alone. Within two years all the posts would be filled on merit basis, she said.
