Only two days left for linking; lakhs await card

Post-August 31, those who have not linked their Aadhaar and bank accounts will not be able to get gas cylinders at the subsidised price of Rs 412; instead, they will have to buy them at the market price, which currently is Rs 920

• Only 34% of those with LPG connections are eligible for subsidised cylinders as they have linked their bank account and Aadhaar number
• Although it has been three years since the registration for Aadhaar card started, only 52% of the applicants are actually in possession of the card

Only two days are left for linking Aadhaar card and bank account to avail of subsidised LPG gas cylinders. The last date for the formality is August 31. As of now, only 34 % of those with LPG connections have linked their Aadhaar card number and bank account. Over the past three months, although Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) has been implemented on an experimental basis in the case of subsidised LPG cylinder, the actual linking process is moving at a snail’s pace. After August 31, those with LPG connections, but without Aadhaar card, will have to buy cylinders at the market rate, even if they are not to blame for non-receipt of Aadhaar card. This will dent household budgets of lakhs of people.

In Greater Hyderabad limits, the registration process for issue of Aadhaar cards started as early as in September 2010. Except for ‘software holiday’ from February to September 2012, the process has continued nonstop. The enrolment for Aadhaar increased when the state government mandated linking of Aadhaar and bank account to avail of subsidised gas cylinder.

According to officials, there are some discrepancies with regard to the number of applications for Aadhaar cards in terms of population, going by the 2011 Census. At least about 52 lakh applicants are yet to receive their Aadhaar cards in Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts alone. In the case of 10 lakh applicants, photo-related data entry has reportedly been corrupted. When these applicants look up the status of their application for Aadhaar card, the sites says ‘error’. A total of 4.68 lakh applications have been rejected (2,36,622 in Hyderabad and 2,31,984 in Ranga Reddy).

When a person with LPG connection submits his Aadhaar number and bank account, the linking should be done immediately. But, many LPG card holders allege complacency on the part of the dealers and bank authorities. The seeding at dealers is at 65% and at banks it is at 34%. There is no parity between the numbers declared by the Civil Supplies authorities and authorities of banks. The Civil Supplies authorities claim that 34% of the accounts are linked, whereas banks say that 55% are linked. The bankers claim that 6,73,482 were linked, while official figures with the Civil Supplies authorities, as on Wednesday evening, was at 4,13,487.

On the linking of account and opening accounts, a senior official with Syndicate Bank said, “We have even worked on Sundays and given all provisions to open zero-balance accounts. Special counters were set up not only at the bank branches, but also at the dealers of the LPG so as to hasten the process”.

“Linking Aadhaar card number, bank account with LPG connection is mandatory; otherwise, households will not be eligible for subsidised gas cylinders,” said Dr Padma, Chief Rationing Officer. District Collector Mukesh Kumar Meena, at a meeting held with bank officials on Wednesday, instructed them to open special counters. He urged people to link their Aadhaar and Bank accounts with LPG on or before August 31.