News Detail

• Nearly seven lakh LPG connections have been blocked in the city, despite claims by Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda that the drive had been temporarily stopped.According to the Department of Food and Civil Supplies, of the 23.36 lakh connections in the city, 13.04 lakh are valid. As many as 6.92 lakh connections have been blocked (as on February 8), as the RR numbers either don't match or simply don't exist. The remaining 3.39 lakh are being verified as more than one LPG connection is registered using the same RR number.Of the 79.33 lakh LPG connections in Karnataka, 46.83 lakh are accepted as genuine and 21.05 lakh have been termed as “invalid”, officials said.
• Thanks to the “carelessness” of officials and authorities of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distributing agencies, several consumers have now been asked to furnish their details all over again. These consumers claim that they had uploaded the information online and were getting their regular supply of LPG cylinders till recently.
• Data entry messed up?
• One such consumer told The Hindu that the officials had “messed up the data entry during the final verification process”.“While some consumers' RR numbers have been classified under group housing (although they are individual connections), the phone numbers of some others have been entered wrongly. This has created a mismatch and officials have classified such connections as invalid,” said the irritated consumer, a Thippasandra resident.“I had uploaded my details correctly online. Although ours is an individual house, I was surprised to find that it has been classified under group housing. On Wednesday, I spent more than three hours in the Deputy Director's office to submit the details again,” he said.
• According to an LPG distributing agency in Dasarahalli, nearly 300 of its 4,000 consumers whose supply was stopped had claimed that they had submitted their RR numbers.“They may have uploaded their details online. But there is no problem with the connections of those who submitted their details in person. We don't know what the exact problem is,” said the proprietor.

Strict enforcement

• B.A. Harish Gowda, Principal Secretary of the Food and Civil Supplies Department, conceded that the oil companies were strictly enforcing the rule of furnishing of RR numbers since last month.“In fact, they have programmed the telephone booking system so as to block the request for cylinder of consumers who have not furnished their details,” Mr. Harish Gowda said.Claiming that some gas agencies had initially not uploaded the details correctly for their own gains, Mr. Harish Gowda said: “This issue has been sorted out. There could be minor problems; however, officials are meticulously verifying the details.”
• He also said that if the supply of some consumers had been blocked, it could be because they could have made errors.He said that some consumers had submitted passport details, instead of RR numbers.The officials were still weeding out “illegal” connections, he said.‘No need to panic'Asserting that there was no need to panic, Mr. Harish Gowda said that consumers may visit their gas agency or the jurisdictional Deputy Director's office to submit their details.

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