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Confusion in State among LPG users over Aadhar SMS

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, July 8 - Even though work on Aadhar is yet to start in Assam and some other northeastern States, cell-phone messages from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) asking LPG consumers to submit Aadhar to resume their LPG subsidy (which the message says has been kept in hold for not submitting Aadhar number) have created confusion among the people.

Many LPG consumers received a message today (and earlier also) which read, �Since you have not submitted Aadhar at LPG distributors, your subsidy transfer is kept on hold. Please submit your Aadhar immediately to resume subsidy transfer.�

A consumer said that it was baffling why such a message should be circulated by the authorities despite the fact that citizens in Assam were yet to be enrolled in Aadhar.

�We have received an SMS on July 6 from VM-IODBTL, stating that our subsidy transfer has been kept on hold as we have not submitted Aadhar at the LPG distributor. I called up IOC to know the details, but they were unable to provide any convincing explanation. As Aadhar is still under process in Assam, what can we do?� Dhrubajyoti Sarma, a resident of Kahilipara, said.

When contacted, an IOC official said that the particular SMS should be ignored by consumers as Aadhar is yet to be started in Assam. The IOC has taken up the matter with the Union Ministry concerned for exempting the consumers of Assam and Meghalaya in that regard, he added.

�The SMS was circulated following a directive to that effect by the Centre. But as Aadhar is yet to be implemented in Assam and Meghalaya, the SMS is not applicable to consumers in these States. We have written to the ministry concerned so that consumers in Assam and Meghalaya are exempted till the time Aadhar is implemented,� an IOC official said.

Another consumer said that he could no longer book an LPG cylinder online, as the online booking process rejected his booking on the ground that he did not have Aadhar. �When I tried to book online, I was shown as invalid consumer. This is unfortunate,� he said.

Moreover, even as someone logs on to any Central Government schemes, he or she has to stop in Aadhar card slap. �So it�s high time the Central Government approved a scheme unique to Assam as an alternative to Aadhar scheme. Otherwise we the people in Assam will get nothing from any suitable scheme,� he added.

State Government pensioners in the State too are a harrowed lot following speculation that the pension system would also be streamlined with Aadhar. Heavy rush has been witnessed at the city Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India for the past few days.

�As the process of Aadhar has not yet started here, the authorities took our names and some other details and said that we would be intimated later on,� a pensioner said.

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