VVIPs cook through the roof

They use highest number of LPG refills

Too much subsidised cooking gas is being consumed by VVIPs, according to a transparency website launched on Friday by state-owned oil firms.

Vice President Hamid Ansari’s official house in New Delhi consumed 171 subsidised LPG cylinders since the beginning of the year to May 31, while minister of state for external affairs Preneet Kaur used up to 161 cylinders.

Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna used 83 refills of 14.2-kg cylinders at his Mathura Line house in the Capital, and BJP leader Rajnath Singh consumed 80 cylinders and former union minister M S Gill 79.

The website showed that industrialist Naveen Jindal’s  house at 6, Prithvi Raj Road in Delhi got 369 refills — or more than one cylinder a day — through two LPG connections, one in the name of his father late O P Jindal and another in name of Radha Devi Rawat.

Oil minister S Jaipal Reddy, who launched the website so that people can track their bookings as well as see if someone was jumping the queue to get a replacement before him, got 26 refills or more than two per month.

As per norms, the public is not allowed to book a refill within 21 days of delivery of a cylinder.

“This (large number of refills) shows I am a popular leader,” Reddy said in a lighter vein.

“I get so many visitors every day, sometimes 200 to 300. Naturally, consumption will be high.” While the same argument may be true for most public figures, there may also be instances of dealers fraudulently showing bookings in certain names and actually diverting subsidised cooking gas to commercial establishments.

Commercial users are supposed to buy the fuel at market rates, which is Rs 396 higher than the price of the subsidised ones.