Port Blair, Jan 24: A Dharna was organized by Andaman Nicobar Pradesh Congress Committee in front of the CCS LPG office at Delanipur from 10.00 to 2.00 p.m on 24/01/2018 against non receipt of LPG cylinders by general public and the incapability of the CCS Ltd., in handling LPG system. People from all walks attended the Dharna.
Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma, President, PCC in his address said that the Consumer Cooperative Society Ltd., Port Blair is was established long back with the basic purpose and intension to serve the common people of these islands by making available commodities of day to day needs of at low rate and to regulate the rate in such a manner that the middle man does not charge excessive rate. The Congress party had the management of the CCS Ltd for a long period and established more than 50 branches all over the islands to serve the people. However after BJP taking over the management of the society, the condition of the society is deteriorating day by day. As the items are not readily available in the various branches of CCS, the consumer and even the share holders are forced to buy the items of daily needs from the local market at comparably higher costs. The society is not able to supply even the LPG cylinders to the Customers satisfactorily and in time as per published schedule. The general public particularly the Govt. Employees use to collect their cylinders from Brookshabad by engaging their own vehicle since the CCS Ltd. failed to supply the cylinders in time to the customers in their residential area. The CCS Ltd. has now stopped this arrangement for one or the other reason aggravating the situation further. However, it is leant that in view of the agitation lunched by the Congress party the CCS Ltd. have restarted the issue of LPG cylinders from Brookshabad. Mr. Kuldeep said that during UPA regime the cost a domestic LPG cylinder was around Rs.465/- whereas presently, under the NDA Govt. the cost gone up to Rs.805/- per cylinder.
Mr. Kuldeep added that the delivery structure of LPG in inter-island is very poor and the people are facing difficulties . Under Pradhan Matri Ujjawala Yojana (PMUY) only one LPG cylinder is provided to a BPL family. He urged that considering the fact that the CCS Ltd. supplies / issues cylinders once in 2-3 months for inter-islands and the cost of LPG has nearly doubled in the last three of BJP regime, the government need to consider providing two LPG cylinders under PMUY, so that the scheme launched serves the purpose envisaged and mitigate the problem of the needy. The Dharna was addressed by Mr. Mohd. Ali, Mr. Noor Islam, Mr. A.R. Manickam, Mrs. Neelaveni, Mrs. Mariyam Bibi, Mr. Sunder Rao, Mr. Malathi Mondal, Mr. AR Selvam, Mr. Ananda Rao, Mr. Tamil Selvan, Mr. Sanna Rao, Mr. Abdul Majeed, Mr. C.D. Singh, Mr. R.K. Raj, Mr. Abdul Aziz, Mr. J. Rajendran, Mrs. Ruchi Ahuja and Mrs. Abala Samaddar. The leaders described the difficulties being faced by the people of this islands especially by the populace of Port Blair and surrounding areas. They said that the LPG vehicles reaches in an area with less number of LPG Cylinders compared to demand, therefore there is a hue and cry. Some time cylinders are not supplied even to the customers who have already obtained the receipt by paying the cost of LPG cylinders.
