Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan faced the ire of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday for not giving pointed replies to their queries on issues related to his Ministry.
Chairman Hamid Ansari said that Ministers must give direct replies to specific questions.
Mr. Pradhan’s observation that the Aadhar-based Direct Benefit Transfer on LPG (DBTL) was launched by the previous UPA government for political mileage drew sharp reactions from the Congress members.
Under the DBTL, consumers are paid cash subsidy to help them buy LPG cylinders at market price. The scheme, launched in 291 districts, has been suspended till further orders as per a decision of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs on February 28, 2014.
“The system of providing subsidised cylinders to all domestic LPG consumers has been reintroduced in all the DBTL districts,” the Minister said in his written reply.
He said the government had revised the cap on the supply of subsidised LPG cylinder per domestic connection from nine to 11 from February, 2014 and to 12 from next year.
