Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution K.V. Thomas has said that a help desk to resolve issues related to supply of cooking gas will start functioning from February 1. The help desk will function out of the district collectorate, said a statement issued by the Public Relations Department here.
It said that the Minister has promised to convene a meeting on January 28 to discuss all the issues regarding the distribution of cooking gas in the district. The meeting will take up also the issues related to linkage of Aadhaar number with the consumers’ bank accounts for availing of government subsidy on cooking gas.
The meeting, starting at 10 a.m. at the Ernakulam guest house, will be attended by representatives of the oil companies, officials from the district administration, officials from Akshaya Kendras as well as bank managers, said the statement.
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It quoted the Minister as saying that the Union government was considering the possibility of providing more time for consumers to link their Aadhaar numbers and bank accounts for receiving LPG subsidy. He said that the window of time for linking bank accounts and Aadhaar cards had been extended up to February. However, it is now obvious that the process of linking Aadhaar and consumers’ bank accounts may take more time, the Minister said. People’s representatives from Kerala had highlighted this fact before the Union government, he said.
There are 9.20 lakh LPG consumers in Ernakulam district and 61.16 per cent of the consumers had submitted their Aadhaar cards to their respective agencies. More than 50 per cent of the consumers have also linked their bank accounts and Aadhaar cards, the press release said. Though 91 per cent of the population in the district had enrolled for obtaining the Aadhaar card, many of them had not received their cards so far.