Linking Aadhar card to LPG subsidy makes Mamata see red

The chief minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee has expressed her shock at the decision of the Petroleum Ministry to make the Aadhaar card mandatory for disbursement of subsidy on LPG cylinder purchase. She has requested them to revise their decision.

‘Only 15 per cent of the people of our State have got the Aadhar card. How will the rest of the people get their LPG subsidies if the card is made mandatory? It is also known that the Supreme Court has not favoured linking of the card to disbursement of benefits under various government schemes’, she told reporters at the state secretariat on Friday.

‘Already, the common people are hard pressed by the restriction of subsidised LPG cylinders to nine per year. Now this card issue will be another cause of harassment to the common people’, said Banerjee on her Facebook page.  She also explained that she wanted one uniform card to cater to all provisions and meet all requirements of the people.

An angry Banerjee said, ‘It is the responsibility of the Central government to prepare the Aadhar card. We strongly protest this sort of arbitrary action on the part of the Petroleum Ministry to deprive the poor people of their legitimate right and demand an immediate roll back of this anti-people decision’.

She also warned that if required, the IOC regional headquarters in Kolkata might be gheraoed. ‘I am not saying this as the chief minister, but on behalf of my party,’ the Trinamool Congress supremo said.