Till March next year,you’ll get only 3 subsidised LPG cylinders

“Since oil marketing companies have complete database of their customers,they will keep a check on the number of LPG cylinders used in a year,” an oil company official said.

The Centre had yesterday put a restriction on the usage of subsidised cylinders to six a year and beyond this limit,consumers will have to pay market rate for getting the supply.

In Punjab,there are 59 lakh registered LPG connections against 54 lakh households while in Chandigarh,there are 3.80 lakh connections against 2.35 lakh households.

Meanwhile,oil marketing companies under the nationwide ‘One Household and One LPG Connection’ have been asking customers to surrender any multiple connections.

Customers have been given till September 15 to surrender their extra connections,otherwise erring consumers will be liable to face permanent disconnection and penal action under the Essential Commodities Act,the official said.

In Punjab and Chandigarh,oil companies have already blocked about 5 lakh and 1.08 lakh connections,respectively,which were multiple ones at the same address and not refilled for the last six months or more. “We are blocking all extra LPG connections,” the official added.

Protest against UPA: SAD to capt

In a related development,the SAD on Monday took on the Opposition in the state and asked Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Capt Amarinder Singh to stop the ‘tamasha’ (protests against recently imposed new taxes) and rush to Delhi to protest against the highest ever hike of Rs 5 per litre on diesel.

Party Secretary Daljit Singh Cheema said that state Congress was trying to fool people by staging dharnas against the SAD-BJP government on non issues and added that hike in price of diesel will have a cascading effect on price of essential commodities which were already beyond the reach of the common people.

Lashing out against the Congress-led UPA government for raising the prices of oil products,Cheema said that this has exposed the nexus between the Congress leaders and the oil companies. “It was surprising that when international prices of crude oil decreases,the benefits are never passed on to the consumers but whenever there is even a marginal increase in price of crude oil,the common man is burdened without any delay,” he added.

The SAD demanded immediate roll back of the hiked prices and warned of a “strong people’s movement against this highly unjustified decision.”

In another statement,Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia said the latest action will prove to be a last nail in the coffin of UPA government.