Consumers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will have to wait till Monday for their cooking gas cylinders to be delivered as the oil companies are in the process of reverting to the earlier distribution system after the Petroleum Ministry on Thursday evening decided to give a two-month grace period for linking Aadhaar number with bank account.
A majority of the LPG consumers in the State were put to hardship for the third consecutive day on Friday, with the oil companies and the dealers trying to reset software that was changed by December 30 assuming that the direct benefit transfer of LPG subsidy would be rolled out in the State from January 1.
Aadhaar complianceAll India LPG Distributors Federation (Kerala Circle) general secretary Sangeeth Kumar said a few dealers in the State had started distributing cooking gas to those consumers who had linked their Aadhaar number with the bank account by Friday afternoon.
The distribution system would be brought back to normal by Monday, he said, adding a lot of documentation at the level of the dealers and bottling units had to be done for that.
Meanwhile, the shutdown called by the Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association on Friday in protest against the steep hike in cooking gas price was near total.
The association has sent a memorandum to the chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation urging him to take appropriate action to bring the price of commercial cooking gas cylinder on a par with that of the domestic cylinder.
