As a Dussera gift, the state government has decided to increase the subsidy from six to nine gas cylinders in a year to the beneficiaries of Deepam Scheme.
Making the announcement at his chambers in the D-Block of the State Secretariat on Tuesday, Sridhar Babu said that about 40 lakh beneficiaries of the Deepam Scheme would get subsidy on nine cylinders instead of six. He said that this has been undertaken on the instructions of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The minister said that the average usage of gas in the State was 5.5 cylinders per family as against the national average of 5.2 cylinders. Stating that about 40 lakh families in the State would benefit from the move, he said that the State Government's decision would alleviate the impact that the subsidy cap has had on these families. He said that this would put an additional burden on the State's exchequer by Rs. 634 crores.
Sridhar Babu also informed that works on providing gas through pipelines in two localities of Kukatpally was on.
The minister also announced that a 15-day special drive will be taken up to weed out bogus ration cards in the state. Estimating that nearly six lakh bogus cards could be in existence, the minister appealed to the people to surrender the bogus cards on their own. If they fail to do so, then authorities would have to take legal action against the card holders. He also warned of stern action if dealers were found involved in bogus ration card irregularities. (INN)
filed in:Domestic Gas Subsidy, LPG Subsidy, LPG, Deepam Scheme