Gas agencies refuse refill without bank account link

JAIPUR: To push their enrollment numbers under Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG consumers (DBTL), gas agencies are refusing to provide refill even though the last date of registration is March 31. Still nearly 27% of people in the state have not registered for the scheme.
One and-a-half months before the roll out of DBTL, agencies have started showing red flag to customers in issuing refill.Many customers have been turned down when they reached for the spot delivery while home deliveries are being delayed by a week and more.
"I booked my LPG cylinder on February 10 but still have not received it. When I went to agency they asked me to first get linked with DBTL then only cylinder will be delivered to me," said Surendra Kaushik, a resident of Railway Colony, Jagatpura.
Many consumers who have booked in January were also denied for the LPG. "After waiting for one week, agency officials asked me to book again. But even after doing that, delivery of cylinder has not been made," said Somanath Sahani, resident, Shyam Nagar.
Out of 79.8 lakh customers, nearly 21.5 are yet to link their bank accounts directly with the gas connection and receive subsidy in their accounts. Low motivation among the public from cities like Jaipur, Jodhpur and Bikaner too have forced the companies to tough stand. On record they claimed to have proper supply but admit that there is a pressure to enroll as many consumers as possible before start of March.
"Despite informing them for past several months customers are waiting for the last day. All they need is to link their Aadhaar number to the bank account number and to the LPG consumer number," said an official of a gas agency. He added "It is for their own benefit, otherwise they will have to purchase cylinders at the market rate".
According to sources, one of the major reasons for lackluster response in major cities is that many consumers, who have multiple LPG connections, are indecisive about which connection to retain. The companies have asked all consumers to seed their LPG connection by using their existing bank account and deposit the details in the form with their LPG distributor.