The Communist Party of India-Marxist has demanded that the State government withdrew its policy of linking supply of subsidised gas with cash transfer scheme (CTS). The CTS should be put off, if it is not possible to completely withdraw the scheme, until every citizen received her/her Aadhaar card and has a bank account, the party said.
Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, CPI (M) city secretary Ch. Babu Rao said that the government decision to link the gas and supply of rationed goods with Aadhaar cards and bank accounts has led to chaos.
Half of the population did not receive their Aadhaar cards and have no bank accounts. The commoner was puzzled how the scheme could be implemented when the Aadhaar cards were not issued to more than half of the people in the city. The banks were not willing to open accounts.
The government should give a direction to the bankers to allow people to open zero balance accounts, he said. The price of a cylinder has increased by Rs.50 following linking the supply with bank accounts. The consumers were forced to shell out Rs.1,088 per cylinder even though the subsidised cylinder costs Rs. 410.
‘No cash transfer’
The subsidy amount was not transferred to the customers’ bank accounts. The subsidy was coming down significantly as the government was collecting Rs.25 towards VAT and cut in subsidy of Rs.25. Cash was not being transferred into the customers’ accounts even though the government promised so, he said. In some cases, the money was transferred into pension accounts even though the beneficiary gave details of some other account number, he said. The State wanted to implement the scheme come what may, he said.
