Furnish papers to keep your LPG tap on

Ration card, electricity bill must be produced before January 29

The Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department has asked ration card holders coming under the above poverty line (APL) category, to submit a copy of the ration card and the Revenue Register (RR) number of the electricity meters of their homes to their LPG distributors within 10 days from January 19.

The exercise, which is applicable to all urban areas of the State, is being undertaken by the department to weed out bogus ration cards and also idenitify the misuse of LPG connections.

There are about 1.5 crore ration card holders in the State, while the Centre has identified 1.02 crore families as eligible for the cards. In urban areas, there are over 55 lakh APL card holders, though according to government estimates, the number of such families is not more than 32 lakh.

The State has been making efforts to identify fake cards so that only eligible families get the ration supplied under the public distribution system.

In panchayat areas, the government has already launched a drive to identify the families which have fake ration cards under the below poverty line category. In these areas, the proof of identify of families to be submitted is the house tax assessment number.

Department secretary Harish Gowda said APL card holders have to submit a copy of their ration card, RR number (a photo copy of the electricity bill) within nine days from Friday to their LPG distributors.

Those failing to submit the required documents will not get the gas cylinders, he said.
For those who have lost their ration cards, but are getting the cylinders, Gowda said: “While getting the gas connection, a consumer would have produced the ration card. So, the LPG supplier will have the data of those who are getting cylinders from him.
“The card holders may ask the LPG supplier to give the data they want. A card holder, whether he is in a rented house or a own house, will be paying electricity bill. The copy of any of the recent bills can be submitted.

“The exercise will help us eliminate fake cards as well as irregularities in supply of gas cylinders. We eventually plan to host all the details on our website.” The commissioner said that for some valid reason, if a card holder can’t produce a copy of ration card, then he  should furnish at least his LPG consumer number and RR number. “Our intention is not to deny anyone gas supply but to weed out the fake ration cards”, he added.

The department has launched a toll free phone number 1800-425-9339 to help consumers get more details.

What’s cooking?
The exercise is applicable to all urban areas in the State.
* Those that cannot produce ration card should furnish at least LPG consumer number and electricity bill.
* The move is to weed out fake ration cards and irregularities in supply of cylinders.