SRINAGAR: Due to the prolonged internet blackout in the Kashmir valley, consumers are not able to receive the LPG subsidy for domestic connections in their accounts.
The internet has been shut for last four months after the government of India abrogated the special constitutional status and downsized Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories.
Currently, consumers complain that they purchase a single gas cylinder at market price as the subsidy component has not reached back to their accounts since August.
A consumer from Srinagar Feroz Ahmad said that he purchased domestic gas cylinder from a registered gas agency for which he paid Rs 820. But the subsidy hasn’t been returned to his bank account.
The government would return subsidy component to bank accounts of beneficiaries.
Executives of gas agencies blame the internet shutdown for the delay in releasing subsidies as they could not update the details of beneficiaries online.
Sales manager of Indian Oil Company for Kashmir Parvez Ahmad Khan said they are updating the details of consumers after the internet was restored to their company headquarters.
According to him, they have asked their dealers to submit the record of consumers by December 15. Accordingly, subsidy can reach to their accounts, he said.
The OIC alone has more than three lakh connections registered in the region. Of them 1.29 lakh cylinders were refilled last month alone.
Khan said they have completed 25 percent of work so far.
Similarly, Sales Manger Hindustan Petroleum Idress Wani said that most of their dealers are visiting other places to update the consumers’ details online.
Director of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumers Affairs (FCS&CA) Department Bashir Ahmad Khan said that he will take up this matter with the companies so that subsidies are released soon.

ARIF RASHID