Kerala Commentary
Cooking gas distribution is a fast growing branch of corruption.
P.S.Remesh Chandran.
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum.
All gas supplying companies have excellent mechanized systems for checking whether a cylinder coming to market from their factory, go-down or distribution office is leaking or not. Citizens never will have enough experience in such things, except that they can at times use their noses for smelling leaking gas. It is the sole responsibility of the gas supplying companies to ensure and guarantee that the cylinders they distribute are not leaking. People pay the cost, the companies give responsible service; that is what the District Administration is there to ensure. Legal Metrology Department officers, Civil Supplies Department officers or the District Collectors have never proved to be bold and courageous enough to arrange regular inspections in these agencies. Not one District Collector has ever dared to bring these gas supplying companies under yoke. Do they know what things are happening in these gas agencies? Have they at least once in their tenure visited these gas agency offices and seen how haughty the employees working in these offices are? It is easy to tell press that people should call the offices of these agencies. Have they ever seen a single human being leaving these offices unintimidated, humiliated and undignified? Who do they think are sitting there to take the phone calls coming from citizens or, if they take the calls, reply unrudely? The Collectors say: Public can contact the LPG companies for any clarifications and doubts and the companies have been directed to do the needful to the customers. In which world are officers like these living? No one working in a gas supplying company will obey anyone except their regional manager, who certainly will be receiving many times the salary of a District Collector. These companies have their own conventional system, which is sending enough number of gas cylinders to these officers, pretending they are giving due importance to the District Collector, and continuing to do as they like. The authorities confess that gas cylinder explosions have become common incident in the state. It is not assisting the victimized families in getting the insurance settlement but arresting the responsible gas company authorities for the crime that a responsible officer should do. The company officials should already have been booked for attempted man slaughter. This farce going on is something like absolving the company authorities of their crimes and helping them escape from charging, by turning people’s attention to safety study classes and by moving Residential Associations who do nothing except assemble occasionally in a house, drink tea and gossip to create confusion among people. Arrest one gas company officer, and you will see the sudden impact. Either the District Collector would be transferred instantly or the gas supplying companies will become good boys and girls by overnight. Does this need declaring emergency situation and 144 as the ineffective District Collector in Trivandrum did?
The state-owned oil company’s portal says hundreds of LPG cylinders are issued to important persons each month and that the 21 days’ booking time is not applicable to them. Let it be so. But some officials say, these Very Important Persons receive 200 or 300 guests each day and that is why their consumption [of gas] is going high. This means they are consuming this much gas for feeding their guests. It is only decent to make public whether they pay this much money from their own pockets or from the public exchequer for using gas. We are sure most of these gas spenders would be wearing Khaddar clothes also to show that they are Indians, that they are Congress and that they are Patriots. Our nation had a father figure who did not destroy even the tapal covers he received but cut them neatly and used them as stationery to write his letters. And that father figure was a brilliant and sincere writer and editor also of reputed books and magazines and newspapers. What do these important persons who lavishly consume people’s gas for feeding guests write, except bank cheques and love letters? Great nation heads had simple porridge for supper and met all their expenses from their own salaries. The lower the rank, the higher would be the spending of public money. To make distribution of cooking gas in India justified and equal and also to bring down their prices, not one person in India shall not be allowed to purchase gas using public money or free. They all receive handsome salaries, from the Prime Ministers, Ministers, and Parliamentarians to the State Assembly Members and let them meet gas expenses from their salaries. Once this happens, we will begin to see gas prices suddenly come down to what is reasonable. If VIPs in authority have to meet gas expenses from their own pockets, they will pass wonderful laws to keep gas prices low.