Amidst the rising inflation of LPG, Right to Information has revealed that a total of 3.59 crore domestic gas connection holders of three public sector oil marketing companies did not fill a single cylinder during the last financial year 2021-22. At the same time, 1.20 crore customers filled only one cylinder in the whole year.
It is worth noting that these customers are not associated with the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) being run for women from poor families. Under PMUY, government subsidized domestic gas cylinders are provided to the customers. Neemuch-based RTI activist Chandrashekhar Gaur told the agency on Wednesday that he had received information related to domestic gas customers under the Right to Information Act.
According to the information, the number of non-PMUY customers who did not fill a single cylinder of domestic gas in Indian Oil Corporation during 2021-22 was 2.80 crore, while during this period 62.10 lakh non-PMUY customers of the company filled only one cylinder. The details obtained by Gaur under RTI show that 49.44 lakh people in the category of non PMUY customers of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation did not fill a single cylinder of domestic gas while 33.58 lakh persons filled only one cylinder in 2021-22. Similarly, in Bharat Petroleum Corporation, 30.10 lakh non PMUY customers of domestic gas did not fill a single cylinder during 2021-22, while there were 24.62 lakh customers of this category who filled only one cylinder in a year.
Economist Jayantilal Bhandari said that common people are troubled by the rising inflation of LPG. Therefore, many poor people, especially in rural areas, may have turned to cheaper conventional fuels such as wood, cow dung and coal. He also said that the supply of LPG to households through pipelines in urban areas has reduced people’s dependence on cylinders. A dealer in Indore said that a family of four usually fills eight to 12 cylinders of domestic gas in a year. However, this figure may not be applicable to households across the country as the annual consumption of cylinders may vary depending on the economic conditions of the households and local weather conditions.