LPG agencies to have Aadhaar centres

The State government’s Centre for e-governance, along with oil marketing companies, is planning to open Aadhaar enrolment centres at local LPG distribution agencies in major cities, including Bangalore, in the coming days to ramp up the Aadhaar coverage, which is currently 58 per cent in the State.

Aadhaar coverage is low in the State and enthusiasm among the people to get enrolled under Aadhaar has dwindled in the last few weeks, especially in Bangalore. Hence, enrolment centres are planned to be opened at gas distribution agencies which will have a direct contact with consumers, officials in the Centre for e-governance said. Lack of awareness regarding the enrolment centres is said to be one of the main reasons for the lukewarm response in Bangalore, it is said.

The oil companies – IOC, HPCL, BPCL - and the Centre for e-governance have come under intense pressure to increase the Aadhaar coverage following the Union Petroleum Ministry’s announcement to extend Aadhaar-based Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) System for LPG refill to most parts of the State, including Bangalore, from this year end.

DBT has already been implemented in Tumkur, Mysore and Dharwad districts on a pilot basis.

In Tumkur, DBT has been made compulsory from September 1 and Mysore and Dharwad districts will follow suit from October 1. It will be extended to 19 districts in December. From March, 2014, DBT will become compulsory in these districts.

Under DBT, consumers of domestic LPG will have to pay the market price for the refill cylinder. The subsidy amount on every refill cylinder will be directly credited to the consumers’ Aadhaar-enabled bank accounts.

Those who fail to submit their Aadhaar numbers and Aadhaar-enabled bank account numbers to the local LPG distributor within the stipulated time will not get the cash subsidy on the LPG refill.

Big challenge

Officials said covering the remaining 40 per cent of the population will be a big challenge. Currently, enrolment is being done at 2,900 centres across the State.

There are 589 centres in Bangalore city alone. But not many people are coming to these centres. So far, 3.54 crore people have been enrolled under Aadhaar and about 2.86 crore Aadhaar numbers have been generated.

IOC deputy general manager (LPG) Dilip Rai said there are about 100 gas distribution agencies, including all oil companies, in Bangalore.

By setting up enrolment centres at the agencies, the pace of enrolment is expected to pick up, he said.