Ground reality still unaddressed

Officials of the Unique Identification Authority of India and the state government have failed to address the “ground realities” with regard to the Aadhaar-LPG linkage.

While officials claim the domestic LPG consumers can link their gas connections with Aadhaar just by submitting their enrol- ment number, the gas agencies are insisting on photocopies of the Aadhaar card for the purpose. In fact, the application format issued by the oil marketing companies stipulate the submission of a photocopy of Aadhaar card at the gas agencies to claim the subsidy.

This has become a big problem for a majority of LPG consumers in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy as lakhs of consumers are yet to get the cards.

The civil supplies department had set up an exclusive Aadhaar enrolment centre to cover all the LPG consumers at the earliest. Enrolment numbers were issued to these people and they were told the number could be submitted to the gas agencies to complete Aadhaar-LPG linkage. However, the employees at the gas agencies are accepting enrolment number only for ‘information purposes’ and not to complete the linkage. Consumers are being asked to submit a photocopy of their Aadhaar cards after they receive them by post to complete the process.

The contention of gas agencies is that there is no provision to complete Aadhaar-LPG linkage process with the enrolment number.