Chaos at gas agencies on final day of enrolment for PAHAL

April 01, 2015 08:08 am | Updated September 03, 2016 04:56 am IST - Bengaluru:

NAGAPATTINAM, 23/12/2010: Unloaded empty Indane gas cylinders at Nagapattinam district.
Photo: B. Velankanni Raj

NAGAPATTINAM, 23/12/2010: Unloaded empty Indane gas cylinders at Nagapattinam district. Photo: B. Velankanni Raj

Chaos and confusion ruled as hundreds of customers queued up at gas agencies in the city on Tuesday, the last day for enrolling themselves under the PAHAL (DBTL) scheme. Eighty-five per cent of the LPG consumers in the State had enrolled themselves under the scheme by Tuesday evening.

Pahal (Pratyaksh Hastantrit Labh) is a direct benefit transfer (DBTL) scheme for LPG subsidy launched by the Union government on January 1, 2015. Those who want to avail themselves the subsidy were supposed to submit their Aadhaar card number or their bank account details to the gas agency by Tuesday.

Most of the gas agencies saw a large number of costumers rushing to submit their documents. G. Nagabhushan, a resident of Vijaynagar, told The Hindu that he had to take a day’s leave and get enrolled in the PAHAL scheme as there was a long queue at his agency. “There was time for three months. I could have enrolled before, it’s my fault and I cannot complain,” he conceded.

However, some consumers who wanted to enrol were unable to do so as some gas agencies were closed to facilitate tallying accounts on the last day of the financial year.

Sulakshana, who rushed to her gas agency in OMBR Layout, was greeted by downed shutters. “There were more than 500 customers outside the agency frantically trying to call the agency staff, but to no avail. If you do not enrol yourself under the scheme by Tuesday, you won’t get a refund of the subsidy on the LPG cylinder from next month. People from the lower income group will suffer,” she rued.

Full bill from April

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) officials said that all LPG consumers will have to pay the full bill of Rs. 635 for a domestic cylinder from April. Those who have enrolled under the Pahal scheme providing either the bank account details or Aadhaar card numbers, will get a refund of the subsidy amount credited to their bank accounts.

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